Well, I know how curriculum should not be created – by non-educators who think they have all the answers to “fix” our “broken” public school system. As I watched the TED video (Salman Khan. (2011, March). Let's Use Video to Reinvent Education), I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed. There was some merit to Kahn’s ideas; for instance, I did agree with his assertion that, in a classroom, we sometimes move ahead even though the students may be at varying degrees of understanding. In fact, I am going through a situation like that in my class right now; I am teaching argument writing, and as I was teaching the lesson today, I noticed that several of the students seemed to be staring blankly with their eyes glossed over. However, I try to work individually with students who seem to have problems with understanding the lesson, and I try not to move on until I am satisfied that most of the students have grasped the concept. I still think, however, that those same students might still fall through the cracks if left to fend for themselves on the computer program.
As Khan continued speaking, many questions
popped into my head. The idea of the flipped classroom seems to fit well with
math, but I question how it would work for English. And, even with math, there
is no guarantee that most of the students would watch the lesson at home. Some
of our math teachers tried the flipped classroom last year, and, while they
were intrigued by the method, found that they had the same problems that they
had had before. If students do not watch the lesson the night before, teachers
still end up having to re-teach the lesson.
Khan boasted about the success he was having
in Los Altos, California. However, he failed to acknowledge that Los Altos
students would naturally be pointed toward success regardless of whether they
used his program. Los Altos is an affluent community. A quick check on
Wikipedia shows that it is the 24th most expensive zip code in the
nation with median home prices of 2.5 million dollars. This is in sharp contrast
with my district where not every student has the support at home to ensure
homework is completed, let alone internet access.
Khan talks about the “one size fits all
lecture in the classroom.” This shows how much he does not know about teaching.
Good teachers know that lectures are not, in most cases, the best method for
teaching a lesson because students are generally not engaged with this type of
teaching. Although Khan thinks he has a superior way of teaching, he has earned
some criticism. Silicon Valley’s MercuryNews reports that some educators
have poked fun at his mathematical reasoning.
The final straw for me with the TED talk was
when Bill Gates walked out on the stage beaming about this “revolutionary”
teaching method. There is no question that Gates is an innovator and one of the
world’s richest and most powerful businessmen. However, Gates is not an
educator. His arrogance in thinking that he has all the answers about education
is appalling and unsettling. I have to wonder when he says, “It’s amazing. I
think you just got a glimpse of the future of education!” to what extent he
intends to have TED videos take over in the classroom.
The article, “How Christian Were the
Founders?” further points out the shocking lengths to which some non-educators
will go to transform public schools into vessels for their radical message. Christian
activists sitting on the Texas Board of Education pushed their right-wing
agenda in the classroom, going so far as to influence text books publishers
into changing the wording and historical figures in their books. Dentist, Don
McLeroy, felt that his fundamentalist ways were the only way to teach public
school students. Getting Jesus into the curriculum was one of his, and the
other Christian activists on the board, many agenda items. The activists felt
that there should be no separation between church and state and even went so
far as to assert that our founding fathers never meant for it to be.
Eventually, McLeroy lost his seat on the board, but many of the Christian right
remain.
Cynthia Dunbar, assistant law professor and
Texas board of education member, published a book, in 2008, titled One Nation Under God. In it she states
that, “We as a nation were intended by God to be a light set on a hill to serve
as a beacon of hope and Christian charity to a lost and dying world.” Her words
are shockingly arrogant. This way of thinking, that the USA is God’s favored
nation, is not uncommon and is sickening to me. While there are many wonderful
things about the United States, we have also committed many errors and, indeed,
atrocities. As a teacher, I will make sure that I teach with a philosophy that
our country is one of many, and that we are not necessarily the best, most
righteous, or always correct.
We are living in a time where legislators,
business people, and fanatics with their own agendas think that they have all
the answers to the perfect education. Sadly, such people have already had a
negative effect on public education. I can only hope that the pendulum will
swing back in the other direction, and soon, so that trained teaching
professionals will once again be considered the experts in education and
curriculum.
