Unlock the Library

Economist/author Bryan Caplan has an interesting proposal to "change the K-12 curriculum in one small way"; he would Unlock the School Library

By this I mean...

1. Give kids the option of hanging out at the library during every break period.
2. Give kids the option of hanging out the library in lieu of electives.

My elementary, junior high, and high schools all had marvelous libraries. But they were virtually always closed to the student body. You couldn't go during recess or lunch. And you certainly couldn't say, "Instead of taking music/dance/art/P.E./woodshop, I'll read in the library." ....

Unlocking the school library requires almost no resources. Simply:...

After the novelty wears off, I expect many kids will get bored at the library. That's fine: Send them back to regular classes. But many other kids - especially nerdy kids - will seize the day.

I can see his point; I was certainly the sort of nerdy kid who would have spent a whole lot of time at the library. And of course there would have been teachers saying that I ought to be in music, art, P.E. and shop, because I would get so much out of them if I was forced to go, but it so happens that I was forced to go and I didn't get anything out of them. (I know, this will bother my sister if she reads it, but it happens to be true.) At any rate, it's an interesting proposal.

Test Rejections

A week or two ago, I noticed Radio Free Hamilton's Even More HCS Students Opt Out of Math Tests

Fewer HCS elementary and middle school students took this week's state-mandated math tests than took last week's English language arts (ELA) exams.

An actual majority refused to take the tests here. In the state as a whole, it was only about a sixth, but Tens of Thousands of New York Students Refuse Tests

Pressed for a reaction to the boycott, which is fueled by allegations that Common Core is rigid and age-inappropriate, and that the tests are excessive, Governor Andrew Cuomo chose to split the difference in characteristic style, by minimizing both the importance of the schooling standards to which his state government (like most) has committed, as well as belittling objections to the same.

"My position was, the department of education had not done a good job in introducing the Common Core, and they had rushed it, so we said, for a period of five years, the test scores won’t count," Cuomo told reporters. "So they can opt out if they want to, but on the other hand, if the child takes the test as practice, then the score doesn't count anyway."

"The grades are meaningless to the student," he added, not exactly shoring up the argument for committing time and effort to filling in ovals on a sheet of paper.

Former U.S. senator from New York, and current presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton went a step further last week, referring to education as a "non-family enterprise."

So... Maybe parents and students have no business raising a fuss, in her view.

Ouch. Well, What If They Threw Common Core Tests and Nobody Came?

Maybe Common Core would have received a better reception if it had been imposed on the country in 1946, after years of regimentation and top-down decision-making from the New Deal bureacracy and the war effort. A gray standardized approach might have suited a collectivized era. But it was decades too late.

... as with so many things, one size doesn't fit all.

High-Tech Teaching: Japan

I'm a long-run techno-optimist about a lot of things, including education, but the crucial thing about any technology is how you use it... Lessons Learned from a Chalkboard: Slow and Steady Technology Integration (Bradley Emerling) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Every classroom I visited was equipped with a large green chalkboard. There were few computers, few projectors or smartboards, and no other visible forms of 21st century technology in most of the classrooms. Japanese colleagues and researchers confirmed this was representative of the average K-12 classroom in Japan. In January 2015, the Tokyo Broadcasting System reported approximately 75% of Japanese classrooms still use chalkboards as the primary medium for presentation of lesson content (Sankyuu, 2015).

My first reaction was one of astonishment. How could Japan, a society known for its creation of gadgets and highly specialized technological devices, be so far behind in their use of 21st century technology?

As I continued to record lessons, I began to note the masterful way Japanese teachers utilized this “primitive” instructional medium....

Since I spend a fair amount of time trying to keep up with Japanese robotics developments, I find this amusing...but it really depends on what lesson structure you want. If you can do it on a chalkboard, then computers provide only a very big waste of time and money. (And very much smaller screens.)