The Eddication Sistum, or Handbasket To Hades 101

I'm finished a week of teaching three different grade seven classes.  For those who are new to my blog, I make most of my shekels in the supply teaching world (that may translate into sub-teaching, occasional teaching, pin-the-tail on the donkey or whatever vernacular is accepted in your neck of the woods).  So you will have to forgive me if I appear to be a little angst driven in my ranting, today.

What are we teaching our children?  Well here in Ontario we seem to have got it pretty much down to a formula.  We spent about two periods a day on Literacy, which is a huge catchall for Reading, Writing, Grammar and the new and oh-so-hip Media Arts.  Then we spend roughly another period and a half on Math, which is another handbasket for anything remotely to do with numbers, except times tables -- more on that to follow, I assure you.  At least three days a week we have something called Phys Ed or Gym, or the newest flavour QDPE (Quality Daily Physical Activity - which is rarely either quality or daily in what I see).  A couple of times a week we trundle the class all to the computer lab (which cost the school, at least one teacher salary, or two educational assistants, to install), so that they can play games, which have met, the boards exacting standards as being educational.  So that leaves us with a few timeslots in the week, in which we try to fit a little Science (note I said little), Social Studies (that would include History, Geography, Environmental Studies, Health etc).  That leaves us with two other periods a week, Art and Music, well Music if there is a teacher with any interest or ability in the school. Unfortunately the same is pretty much true for Art.

So let's look at each subject individually. 

Literacy.  Well I will give the province pretty good marks on teaching children to read.  There has/have been huge resources thrown at this effort and obviously a bit of it has stuck.  Most children can actually read aloud in the classroom if called upon to do so, and if silent personal reading time is offered, most can sit and quietly leaf through a magazine as a bare minimum. 

Writing, well that's a horse of a different shade.  Speling is atroshus.  We've taught a generation, not to worry about learning proper spelling, Spellcheck can do that for you, so don't waste your precious time, or valuable brain space memorizing such silliness.  There is a definite thrust to get grammar rules, back into focus, but unfortunately, I think we have a generation of teachers, teaching grammar, who went through the era of schooling where grammar was a bad word, so they lack the rudiments themselves..

I'm taking an evening course on novel writing this semester at the local college.  Wow, is that an eye opener, and should be required schooling for every teacher.  We have been so ingrained in teaching children to write creatively - that is, use descriptive adjectives, choose engaging adverbs and most importantly write using employing strong, varied verbs.  In other words Sally doesn't just say something, she joyfully warbles it, she ear-splittingly screeches it, she menacingly whispers it, or prayerfully breathes it.  Oh yes and Sally is not just plain old, everyday Sally, she is the enchantingly exquisite Sally, the painstakingly precise Sally, or breath-takingly beautiful Sally.

My teacher who is a writer and an editor, pretty much says "cut the crap".  And she wasn't shy about singling me out (as the only teacher in the class), that I (well maybe not me specifically) am doing the writing industry a huge disservice in concentrating on teaching this creativity.

Her recommendations in writing the novel are, first of all in dialogue, use he said, she said, 99% of the time.  On your first rewrite of the novel, go through and scrap one out of every two adjectives, and edit further on every rewrite.

Let's look at the new field of Media Arts, which is now the fourth dimension to Literacy.  Someone (who is making far more money than you or I)  has realized that children watch a lot of television, spend a lot of time on the computer, and are Jedi-warrior-equivalent on a variety of handheld technological gadgetry.  Because of this, we need to devote a little more valuable scholastic time, to encouraging and nurturing this - it will serve them well in the real world.

Okay on to Math, and that will be all for today's blog, the other subjects will be discussed at a later date.  The biggest concern I have by the Grade 7 level,is the failure to have times tables committed to memory.  Let's look at this.

Below we have a simple timestable, up to 10 X 10. How difficult is it really?  At the beginning of grade 3 every student with any ability, should automatically know the 1 X tables (yellow - there we have eliminated 19 out of the hundred spots immediately.  They should also have learned to count by two's in Kindergarten (green) another 17 spots gone.  Our Ontario Kindergarten curriculum also insists that K graduates can count by 5's (blue) another 15 spots, and 10's (pink) another 13 spots gone.   So if we look at the table, that leaves us with 36 timestables facts that still need to be learned.  Many months back I demonstrated a very simple way of doing the 9X's tables, using just your fingers. Mnemonics (just scroll down until you see my daughter's hands).  That would take us down to 25 spots left.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	18	20
3	6	9	12	15	18	21	24	27	30
4	8	12	16	20	24	28	32	36	40
5	10	15	20	25	30	35	30	45	50
6	12	18	24	30	36	42	48	54	60
7	14	21	28	35	42	49	56	63	70
8	16	24	32	40	48	56	64	72	80
9	18	27	36	45	54	63	72	81	90
10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100

Since most children can easily memorize their addresses, telephone numbers, cell phone numbers, umpteen passwords, why do we struggle so with 25 multiplication facts - numbers they will use most every day of their lives.  Take one of those multiplication facts each day for a month, and guess what you've made a breakthrough. Now imagine if we repeated that every month for the year, and every year from say Grade 3-6, every student would have it.

I went to a teaching math workshop, run by a well respected teacher, and personal acquaintance.  He sat there and told us that children should not be forced to learn timestables by rote.  "Those numbers would come to them naturally, and if not they would always have access to a calculator."  Funny thing is, I taught his son yesterday - a very bright young lad, and yes there he was along with twenty eight other classmates plunking away on their smartphone calculators, multiplying single digit numbers to work through all kinds of complex word problems and mathematical concepts (most of which they will never use at any point in their lives, beyond the math classroom).  Please note I made no judgment, just reported observations!

Oh crap wait, in all my mutterings of the week's schedule, I forgot about French - hop in the handbasket, that is another hole blog write their (ewe got it rite?).

And that is about all I have to say for today (heaven knows that was plenty).

Musings and RANTings from the Musical Gardener.