Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

A–157

Appendix XXV

Thanks for listening.

P.S.: Samuel Blumenfeld, in the Foreword to my new book, has taken a stand against direct instruction. He’s a very principled fellow! I hope this alert will get a lot more principled people to take a stand against this method before it’s too late.

Endnote: 1. What Works in Education can be ordered from the Cambridge Center by calling 1–978–369–2227.

(2)“The Difference Between Traditional Education and Direct Instruction” by Tracey J. Hayes

The major difference between Traditional Education and Direct Instruction (DI) is the method in which the content is taught. Traditional education focuses on content-rich curriculum in which a particular subject is “introduced, taught, and reviewed,” moving from simple to complex, spiraling back to refresh and retain previously learned material while progressing in that subject. Some publishing companies make recommendations on what content is to be taught, but in most traditional education classrooms, the teacher decides “how” the “what” is to be taught. To help determine student achievement in traditional education, weekly quizzes and end-of-chapter tests are administered. One hundred percent mastery is, however, not expected. The teacher knows that with time and review, retention of knowledge and test scores will improve. The object of traditional education is to offer students a broad foundation of information, based on facts and figures, that will be retained for future application on high stakes assessments, education and career objectives, and life-long wisdom. Traditional education is sometimes described as “direct instruction.” In traditional education the teacher stands in front of the classroom “directly instructing” the students in the subject matter. Direct instruction and teacher-directed instruction (used in traditional education) are examples of how words in our language can be perceived as being one and the same, when in fact they are very different from one another. Deceptive semantics has created much confusion among many educators as well as parents. With traditional education, on Monday the teacher assigns her class a chapter to read on the subject of George Washington crossing the Delaware. She tells them they will be tested on this subject on Friday, but she doesn’t tell them exactly on what they will be tested. In other words, they must learn as much as they can about everything in the chapter—including the name of George Washington’s horse. When tested, the students might receive a 75% or 80% grade and some parents may be upset with what they consider a “low” grade. However, in fact, the students have done far better than students using mastery learning or direct instruction who are taught to the test, only learning that material on which the teacher tells them they will be tested and receiving a grade of 90–100%. The students in the traditional education class have actually learned many, many times more than the students in a mastery learning or direct instruction class, even though they did not have to use all they learned on their test. Professor Benjamin Bloom, the father of mastery learning, was certainly correct when he asserted that students could reach 85% mastery—of a limited or dumbed down curriculum. Direct Instruction focuses on a narrow curriculum in which a particular subject is