All of your criticisms of the education system are true. I am the husband of a "Master Teacher" and Doctorate wife who was involved from approximately 1988 to 2017, so I am very knowledgeable of what you speak. By the mid-1990's, educational best practices included stimulating curiosity, integrated and crossed curriculum, brain safety, the joy of learning - everything you mention above, and more. Then in the mid-1990's the concept of No-Child-Left-Behind (NCLB) reared its head and destroyed everything that you just identified as important. NCLB attempted to improve education by making learners pass standardized tests, supposedly to motivate them to learn. This led directly to multiple tests per year, at many grade levels, which in turn forced teachers to abandon everything but rote memorization, extremely boring, "teaching to the test." Twenty, and twenty-five years ago, the education system included, and cherished, explicitly, everything you mention above. But the non-education educated politicians enforced what they concluded was a better idea, NCLB, destroying the then existing system, and replacing it with a teach-to-the-test system, which is still in use today. All of that old (better) information is still out there, and it is my hope that the education system may yet recover since NCLB expired in 2014.
Thank you for this information, George! I wasn't aware how NCLB changed the face of education so drastically. Are you aware of how the old system worked in practice when they fostered curiosity and the other things you mention? As in, how did teachers create the classroom environment to foster that? Would be curious to know how those methods worked. Thanks again!
All of your criticisms of the education system are true. I am the husband of a "Master Teacher" and Doctorate wife who was involved from approximately 1988 to 2017, so I am very knowledgeable of what you speak. By the mid-1990's, educational best practices included stimulating curiosity, integrated and crossed curriculum, brain safety, the joy of learning - everything you mention above, and more. Then in the mid-1990's the concept of No-Child-Left-Behind (NCLB) reared its head and destroyed everything that you just identified as important. NCLB attempted to improve education by making learners pass standardized tests, supposedly to motivate them to learn. This led directly to multiple tests per year, at many grade levels, which in turn forced teachers to abandon everything but rote memorization, extremely boring, "teaching to the test." Twenty, and twenty-five years ago, the education system included, and cherished, explicitly, everything you mention above. But the non-education educated politicians enforced what they concluded was a better idea, NCLB, destroying the then existing system, and replacing it with a teach-to-the-test system, which is still in use today. All of that old (better) information is still out there, and it is my hope that the education system may yet recover since NCLB expired in 2014.
Thank you for this information, George! I wasn't aware how NCLB changed the face of education so drastically. Are you aware of how the old system worked in practice when they fostered curiosity and the other things you mention? As in, how did teachers create the classroom environment to foster that? Would be curious to know how those methods worked. Thanks again!