False Dichotomies of Education Reform: Reading and Math

June 10, 2004

One common weapon in education reform as wielded by Progressives is the false dichotomy. Time after time they'll propose a solution to a "problem" which involves the choosing between two seemingly opposite methods, as if they were mutually exclusive absolutes.

It plays out like this: An 'old' method is examined and found lacking. A 'new' method is proffered which is clearly superior. Progressives then advocate replacing the 'old' with the 'new.'

When one takes off the blinders, what one sees is that both methods were always traditionally used very effectively. Often what is described as 'old' is simply instruction at the basic-skills level, and the method dubbed 'new' is (and was) traditionally used to hone and refine those skills and take them to more advanced levels.

Thus, what Progressives propose is eliminating effective methods for acquiring basic skills, and to try to skip straight to the good parts, to the fun, to the creative, to the advanced.

A noble effort, to be sure, but students then lack basic skills.

Reading: In the teaching of reading, the most effective way to do it is to explicitly teach each and every one of the 42 phonemes in the language, and to work your way through all 250 spellings of these 42 sounds, steadily over the course of Kindergarten through Fourth Grade. At the same time you're reinforcing the acquisition of new sounds and spellings by using literature, such as the McGuffey's Readers of olden days.

At the kindergarten level, you're teaching the sounds of the alphabet and using very simple words like consonant-vowel-consonant combinations (Dog, Cat, Man, Cow). There's a McGuffey's reader at the Kindergarten level for kids to begin to learn to read. Each and every year thereafter, the phonics goes deeper, and the literature gets richer.

Side by side, literature and phonics cooperate to teach kids to read.

Progressives, in their push for "Whole Language" and the slightly reworded version called "Balanced Literacy" aim to replace the teaching of phonics with the teaching of literature.

Math: In the teaching of math, the most effective way to do it is to explicitly teach the number facts and drill them to the point of automaticity. These number facts include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, later moving up to things like the manipulation of fractions, decimals, percents, proportions and square roots, just to mention a few basic skills. At the same time you're reinforcing the acquisition of these number-sense skills by using problem solving, such as applying arithmetic to real world problems.

When teaching addition, you have three apples, and get two more, for a total of five apples. When teaching mulitplication, you have four boxes of toys, each box contains eight toys, for a product of 32 toys. Each time a new math skill is taught, there are usually a bunch of good problems to sink one's teeth into. For example, when teaching square roots, it's a perfect time to teach finding the missing side of a right triangle using the Pythagorean theorm. And on and on.

Side by side, problem solving and arithmetic cooperate to teach kids how to do math.

Progressives, in their push for "New-New Math" and the official-sounding version called the "NCTM Standards" aim to replace the teaching of arithmetic with the teaching of problem solving.

Do we sound like a broken record?

The acquisition of skills is not, and never has been, an either-or proposition.