New French Education Reform Blog!

January 31, 2004

The birth of a blog is a wonder to behold. From France comes a new blog called ReformEducation (en Français), all of 24 hours old.

Of all the international visitors to ReformK12, by far the most people hail from France. We can only imagine that they're struggling with the same reform issues that we have here in the U.S.

Using Babel Fish, we translated their first posts and cleaned up the language a bit, albeit poorly. But while the rote translation of idiomatic phrases can be amusing, we think we know exactly what this French blogger's saying. From the inaugural post yesterday (all italics are ours):

Let us have courage to call a spade a spade: The LEVEL IS NOT GOOD.

I have impassioned myself for approximately two years for this problem. I have extensively read, sought on the Internet, and studied the situation abroad (in particular in the United States).

In my opinion, the root of the evil is a conflict between two philosophies of education: education known as "traditional" and education known as "progressive."  I think that the second philosophy has a crushing responsibility in the current situation.

It seems the author's gone through a process very similar to our past decade of experience.

Many criticize schools (public or private) by claiming that they've remained fixed a hundred years behind, a kind of horrible prison where sadistic professors cram useless heaps of knowledge down the throats of poor terrorized pupils, etc..., you know the song. It is the mantra of the press, of left-thinking people, and of the official "pedagogues" of the ministry, for example of Meirieu (I will speak again lengthily of this character).

One weapon Progressive reformers have in their impressive arsenal is the abuse of history. They attack "traditional" education as cruel factory schooling, with the poor pupils beaten with sticks and forced to learn to read and do paper-and-pencil math, while sitting in desks which were (gasp) bolted to the floor. Oh, the humanity!

Nothing is false any more! How can one hold such a belief? For fifty years, the reforms have piled up one on another, without any evaluation, with an insane acceleration since the law of orientation of 1989 (thank you Mr. JOSPIN). Think of the "modern maths", the "total method", with the PAE, TPE, ECJS, IDD and other jokes . . .

We think of how "new new math," "whole language," "bilingual education," "project-based learning" and the like have wreaked havoc in our schools, all without any evaluation! (That is, without any supporting evaluation.)

It appears that "pedagogues" believe that so that the pupils learn better, it is necessary that the professors do not teach!!! It is the "autonomous construction of the knowledge by learning." Do not laugh! Or then laugh yellow, because it is what your dear fair children undergo every single day.

In American Schools of Education the concept of "sage on the stage" is mocked in favor of "guide on the side." And our favorite topic: Constructivism! (Musician extraordinaire Susan Werner defined the French yellow laugh as "you laugh, but you go 'Eww.' ")

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From their second post yesterday:

To remove the IUFM

Since their creation in 1991 by Jospin, the University Institutes of Training of the Masters, these "straw huts" of pedagogy did not cease extending their capacity, at the same time as their nothingness burst at the great day.

An ever increasing capacity, bursting with self-congratulations, yet having a foundation made of straw? Reminds us of our Schools of Education here in America, the progeny of John Dewey. (The French word paillotes is misspelled in the original.)

Behind the project of the IUFM is a hiding place for a totalitarian and levelling ideology: "sciences of education", which are sciences only in name. They are to true science what astrology is to astronomy . . .

(Emphasis ours.) Ouch! We wince at this description, because we personally possess the self-important "Science of Instruction" degree.

But it is interesting that the author refers to a "hiding place for a totalitarian" ideology. This is very true in the United States, where many early Progressive education reformers really sought to remake society with their efforts, and were heavily influenced by Marxism, Socialism and Communism. These folks were in direct opposition to the Traditionalists, who believed that the purpose of education was to teach children a body of knowledge and skills.

As for "levelling ideology" we see this daily, as schools seek to eliminate the distinctions between groups of students by pretending such distinctions don't exist (dumbing down the education for everybody, as seen in today's "Defining equality down" post by Joanne Jacobs).

Did the school situation improve one iota since their creation? NO. Unfortunately, they are not reformable.

How true. The real path to education reform largely is getting rid of those Progressives who are trying to "reform" education, reformers who have a near-complete absence of success! A vicious cycle.

The United States has known for a century the "schools of education," the analog of our IUFM, where the situation is still worse. The Americans at the present time try to develop "alternative certification," i.e. the recruitment of professonals who've not passed through these "Ed. Schools:" young graduates of the universities, people having professional experience . . .

We wrote about alternative certification yesterday.

The reforms which I propose:

- Closing of all the IUFM

- Closing of the INRP (national institute of educational research)

- In all the universities, closing of the departments of "sciences of education"

We like this guy! Gotta love the scare quotes around "sciences of education."

And the reference to the national institute of educational research reminds us both of our federal Department of Education (which we advocate disbanding), and the What Works Clearinghouse (because we don't know what works? Please).

The level is not good, indeed.

If you're a Francophone, please visit ReformEducation. Bonne chance, mes amis!