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Re: Livening Up Today's Lesson
Peter F. - not to be a party-pooper, but I didn't see much evidence
of constructivism in the Times piece. What did you see?
Peter C.
On Aug 9, 2006, at 10:47 AM, Peter Farruggio wrote:
Elsa,
Thanks! Unfortunately, after I had sent that version, I noticed
that the Times has a 150 word limit. So, I sent this shorter,
weaker version as a back-up.
Pete
Re: "Livening Up Today's Lesson, Courtesy of Uncle Sam," NY Times,
August 7, 2006, p. A4:
The description of the student-centered, active
teaching methods promoted by the US in Indonesian schools
highlights a bitter irony for many American educators. It is
heartening to know that the federal government pays to train
teachers in Indonesia to use relevant curricula to build students'
thinking skills. Such pedagogy, known as "constructivism," has
been effective for low income minority children since the 1970s.
But teachers in most American schools are prevented
from using this constructivist pedagogy, due to the takeover of
public education by the high-stakes testing juggernaut of the 1990s
and the No Child Left Behind law of 2001. The testocrats have
turned most public schools into anti-intellectualist "test-prep"
factories that emphasize didactic lessons and low level memorization.
I hope your article encourages readers to think about
the hypocrisy of US education, and to act to change things so that
American schoolchildren may benefit, like Indonesian students, from
state of the art pedagogy.
At 04:48 PM 8/8/2006, you wrote:
Peter,
I certainly hope your letter gets published. Thanks for writing
it. I had similar thoughts when I read the article.
Elsa Haas
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