Not too long ago I sought out the prospect of examining remedial math instruction and pursuing this to a greater extent in my research. This thought was trumped by the realization that this interest of mine was purely selfish and had no long-term presence in my academic career. Stating that, I’ve realized that, as Miller stated in a pleasant New York Times article posted yesterday, “Learning the skill of how to learn is more important than trying to fill every possible cup of knowledge in every possible discipline” [more]. Educators need to be right from the start. Students need to be accountable for learning the correct information. That the information is not correct when they receive it is both selfish and incomprehensible. John Anderson notes that “if a fact about a concept is encountered frequently, it will be stored with that concept, even if it could also be inferred from a more general concept”. In the context of math instruction and the subsequent remedial ‘unwinding’, students will typically learn a concept and ‘imbed’ this information with regards to applicability and correctness regardless of whether they can or cannot discern the true nature of the information. It is not to say that some students during their developmental years are unable to extrapolate how a given mathematical method, concept or principle applies in relation to other facts (or propositions), but rather that the education of most students by poorly-trained educators threatens the nature of learning during early childhood. That the credibility of these educators is not thoroughly examined and subsequently profiled is an injustice to a ‘free and open learning environment’. We expect our students to perform on par with other nations, but we are reticent to impose accountability on their part because it may damage and impair their development. I purport this is not the case. It is because it’s more difficult to hold oneself accountable that educators and teachers are willing to take the easy way out rather than do what is right. We want so much for our students to grow and learn that we forget to realize that the welfare and well-being of our educators, the ones that put their own lives out for the sacrifice of preparing others to excel, is being usurped for the betterment of other federal and municipal wishes. Ultimately, education begets education, which in turn is reliant upon our teachers. If we devalue educators and teachers, we devalue the worthiness of pursuing education. Think of it this way… if I, as a 7th grade math teacher, have to divert my focus from teaching to working my part-time job after school to ensure that my family is well cared for and has food on the table, then I’m less likely to fully invest myself in the pursuit of my primary job.Education is not a job. Until we start to treat it as a career, then all it will be is a way to make a paycheck and not a living. I hate to think of the students that have to be taught critical skills - skills that they will remember in one way or anther, by someone who has to rethink the validity of being a teacher.
Oct 01