Developing all students' talents or imposing conformist standards

Our education system, with its genesis in industrial age thinking, was never designed to educate all students. At best it was a way of sorting out students who might progress. That they have succeeded with so many students is to their credit but today they are well past their use by date. New thinking is required. The age of standardisation is over but the government seems to be unaware of this.We have a problem in our schools - it is one of disengagement which is at a worrying level at years 7 to 10.The government with its popular mandate believes the answer is to do with poor teaching of literacy and numeracy in primary schools and intends to introduce the failed concept of standards against the wisdom of highly respected educationalists,...

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Posted in: Assessment,Big Picture,Creative Schools,Leadership,national standards,Rants and Raves,Talent Development,teaching and learning

National Standards Debate .- let's follow Scotland!

Chris Hipkins labour member for Rimataka speech in Parliament against National Standards.I had trouble uploading the video but you can check out the video on the ASCD Express newsletter.'This bill is nothing more than a desperate attempt by the new National Government to come up to the fact that they have no new ideas on how to address underachievement in our schools', says Hipkins.'This bill will narrowly focus the education system on teaching kids a very, very narrow range of knowledge. The teachers will have to teach to the tests rather than teaching to the curriculum, it will grow the gap between the achievement rates of students of rich schools and the students of poor schools.' The video is well worth a listen to. To add a little more to the debate read what a New Zealand teacher sent...

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Posted in: Ministry NZCurric,national standards,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning

Debunking National Standards -Alfie Kohn

This slightly edited article by Alfie Kohn has permission to be reprinted as long as it is acknowledged and not sold for profit.Published in Education Week January 14th 2010. It could have been written about the situation in NZ. Visit Alfie Kohn's site.Debunking the Case for National StandardsOne-Size-Fits-All Mandates and Their DangersBy Alfie Kohn I keep thinking it can’t get much worse, and then it does. Throughout the 1990s, one state after another adopted prescriptive education standards enforced by frequent standardized testing, often of the high-stakes variety. A top-down, get-tough movement to impose “accountability”– driven more by political than educational considerations – began to squeeze the life out of classrooms, doing the...

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Posted in: Assessment,Big Picture,Creative teaching Educationalists,Ministry NZCurric,national standards,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning

Let's get mad as hell about standards

This blog has been contributed by someone who responded to one of blogs from last year. It was too good not to share. How schools face up to standards is a pivotal issue. Creativity and imagination are at stake. My blog was based on a review of a book called 'Wounded By School' by Kirsten Olsen. I now have the book and will share it later - it is excellent. Dysfunctional schools are part of the failure problem!They say no real change comes without a crisis, Perhaps the issue of "national Standards"(On blue paper no less !)will provide the impetus for Teachers to stand up and Fight against what is Universally a crime against the sovereignty of human consciousness.(Schooling)This unsustainable practice was always going to come to a head and it...

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Posted in: Big Picture,Creative teaching,Ministry NZCurric,national standards,Rants and Raves

A short story : Why isn't Sione in the dance group.

This short story was sent to me by a 'teachers' friend' from the North. It poetically illustrates the dangers of imposing a narrow standards based approach to learning. Schools need to tap into the interests, culture and motivations that students bring with them and not try to fit them into middle class boxes.“Isn’t Sione in the dance group?” asked Margaret, as her class from Term 1 filed onto the stage for the assembly item on the final day of Term 2.Margaret had been the new entrant teacher in Room 1 for the first term of the year and had taken maternity leave over Term 2 so I was rather surprised to see her at assembly. None the less I remembered that she was really committed to her class and those kids who she had started in Term 1 and...

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Posted in: Ministry NZCurric,national standards,teaching and learning

Creativity or compliance - to be or not to be that is the question.

2010 is shaping up to be year when schools have to face up to choosing between developing creative teaching beliefs or implementing imposed reactionary politically inspired ideology. The other alternative is to unthinkingly to go along to get along. If this tuns out to be the case it will be sad day for creative education and the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.As soon as primary teachers get themselves back to school in a couple of weeks they will have to face up to the issue of National Standards.If the National Standards are accepted without even a trial then teachers will be aligning themselves with a system that will distort the education of their students. It will mean developing schools as being un-educational; a source of mis-education...

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Posted in: Big Picture,Creative Schools,Leadership,Ministry NZCurric,national standards,Personalized Learning,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning

From a true friend of creative schools

Time for schools and teachers to put faith in their own ideas! This blog was sent to me as an e-mail but I thought it worth sharing. Written by a highly respected ex principal who still works with schools.Hi BruceYes I have read your last two blogs and I like the way you are continuing to show opposition to the ridiculous implementation of National Standards. I also like the way you are putting it on teachers and principals to hold firm to their beliefs and provide creative programmes.My concerns around this are many and one of the first is that I don't believe a large number of teachers today have a philosophical belief about teaching as it has been assessed and appraised out of them. That's if they had a belief about creative teaching in...

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Posted in: Assessment,national standards,teaching and learning

'Carrots and Sticks are so Last Century' - Dan Pink

Dan Pink has written several best selling book on the future of work.His most latest book is Drive in which he Explores what motivates us to do our best work. Ideal remedial holiday reading for our limited Minister of Education and her tame lackeys who insist on waving big sticks at teachers to do as they're told. Pink would say, 'they are locked into the wrong century!'As it turns out I ordered the book through Amazon and it arrived today but until I read it I will rely on an interview with Pink where he was asked to relate his ideas to education.Pink's ideas reinforces my view that education, as it is currently structured, is past it 'use by date' being far too teacher dominated. Even the most liberal of our so called 'child centred ' primary...

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Posted in: Big Picture,change,Creative teaching,Ministry NZCurric,national standards,Personalized Learning,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning

Students need to play whole games

David Perkins ( Harvard Graduate School of Education) is aways worth reading and I have written earlier about his books. His ideas contribute to seeing education in a fresh way - and supports those creative teachers who have always believed in an holistic approach to learning.It is unfortunate that most teachers, even primary teachers who think they are child centred, still work from traditional teacher determined approach; literacy and numeracy reign supreme. Implementing National Standards will further reinforce outdated approaches. To make it worse over the past decades schools have become obsessed with endless testing that changes little the learning experiences of the students.Back to Perkins. Perkins writes about developing learning around...

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Posted in: Creative Schools,Creative teaching Educationalists,Educationalists,project based learning,teaching and learning

Right wing bile - disguised as journalism.

'It is beyond me', writes ex Act politician and self styled commentator Deborah Coddington in her article in the Sunday Times 3/1/10, 'how those...teachers..and their mulish principals can deliberately falsify test results just because they don't want national standards reflecting badly on their schools'. 'Denying children the chance to to read', she continues, 'is child molestation of the mind. The perpetrators should be incarcerated.'She concludes, 'like the real pedophiles they see no harm in their behaviour. They are simply doing what they think is right- it is the authorities who are out of step and should change their policies.'How do editors let such unsubstantiated drivel get through the editorial process?If I remember correctly one...

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Posted in: Big Picture,Ministry NZCurric,national standards,Rants and Raves