Daniel Willingham--Science & Education
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​An open letter to editors of the New York Times (and most other American periodicals).

9/12/2016

 
Printing Nicholson Baker’s article in yesterday’s Magazine was a terrible, terrible decision.

The decision deserves two “terribles” because it was a double mistake.

First, you published an article on a topic that entails conflicting priorities in setting goals for public good, policy constraints in achieving these goals, the science of learning, distribution of wealth, and doubtless other complexities that I’m too exhausted to identify and enumerate. The author of the article has no expertise on any of these matters. That he appears to believe his 28 days as a substitute teacher gives him much insight into schooling only makes him less credible. The most fundamental limitations of his experience—for example, that teachers might choose a lesson for the substitute because it is easy to teach, even if it’s less interesting for the students—seem to have escaped him.

The second “terrible” is, unsurprisingly, the content. The author commits the common education newcomer blunder: “The school that would have been perfect for me, would be perfect for everyone.” He cannot understand why high school must be so stifling and soulless. Part of the blame goes to curriculum, where otherwise interesting topics are made dull, but there’s no mistaking that the teachers who inflict this boring stuff on students deserve blame as well. Baker reminisces fondly about his own experience at an alternative high school, where students studied what they wished. 

To be more specific, NYTimes editors, here’s a probably incomplete list of problems in Baker’s argument:
                1. There is actually evidence regarding classroom instructional quality in this country (e.g., here). He might have made use of it. (It shows, by the way, that the emotional tone is, on average, much more positive than he lets on. Instructional quality, however, is not much better.)
                2. Baker is not the first to suppose that much greater freedom for students would lead to greater motivation and better outcomes. The lesson over the last hundred years seems to be that such schools are wonderful when they work, but reproducing the successes has proven more difficult than most observers would guess.
                3. Some parents prefer a lot of structure. The private schools in  my town do not all follow the lots-of-choice model, a al Waldorf, Montessori, or Reggio Emilia. More parents pay to send their children to highly structured, traditional schools.
                4. There are good arguments in favor of a common curriculum.

While I have your attention, please don’t publish similarly one-note, blinkered pieces centering on the ideas like these:
1) Technology is poised to revolutionize learning and schools.
2) Competition would solve all problems in American education.
3) American education is the best in the world and all challenges in educational outcomes are due to poverty.
4) Teachers are fools, and the teacher’s unions are organized crime syndicates dedicated to protecting them.
5) All of America’s problems in education can be traced to standardized tests and if teachers were simply allowed to teach as they wished, all would be well.

Thanks,
Dan

Educationally Incorrect
9/12/2016 05:41:39 pm

I posted this to the Joanne Jacobs site as well:

As part of my ed school training I had to do observations in a local school. One of the schools in which I did my observing was School without Walls in Rochester NY., the apparent alma mater of Mr. Baker.

One thing that most of the school’s supporters seem to miss is the role that self-selection can play in any apparent success. Students have to apply to this school favoring those students who want to get a good education. There is also no gym at this school, meaning that those who just want to shoot hoops won’t apply there either.

The students there were definitely more docile and more academically oriented than those in surrounding schools. However, there was nothing about the school, that I could see, that made them this way. The school, and its self-proclaimed reputation, is what attracted the students to the school to begin with. The instruction there was sub-par compared to what I later saw in other high schools.

The school and its supporter crow about the “independent projects” the students there do. A student chooses some “topic” and some teacher signs off on it. Then the student is on his/her own. The student may keep some sort of “journal”, but the teacher and the school do little more. Here are some of the “projects” I saw there:

One kid was a fashionista who favored guerilla chic like military fatigues and accessorized with heavy chains and such. His project involved going to the meetings of some “death to Israel” type group and its collection of violent literature comprised his project, along with a log book of the meetings he attended. No hint that he even read or understood anything. It all seemed like a hip thing to do to him.

Some girl took up belly dancing.

Some kid took up poker.

Some other kid took up wrestling. The WWF variety. He showed videos of himself being tossed about a ring. What the school had to do with this, apart from signing off, escapes me.

Some kid video taped himself changing the brakes on his father’s car. This was probably the most impressive project I saw.

Some kid took apart a motorcycle transmission, and he had the parts strewn on a table for all to see. No hint that he could put it back together.

The “projects” I saw at the SWW are simply termed “hobbies” or “extracurricular” activities elsewhere, and schools don’t take credit for “teaching” something they have nothing to do with. The SWW is simply taking credit for something it barely touches.

How people fail to see this is beyond me.

Steve
9/13/2016 03:09:35 pm

Damn, Daniel!
Damn, Daniel. Back at it again with the intelligent take down of uniformed opinions about effective education.

Karin Chenoweth
9/13/2016 09:25:55 pm

What is puzzling to me is that Mr. Baker says that the most memorable thing that ever happened in his time at that alternative high school is the time when a teacher actually -- wait for it -- taught a lesson using direct instruction. "That one history lecture was a revelation," he said. Why would he deny other students the opportunity for many such revelations?

Thank you for this wonderful answer to such a weird and unsupported article.

Jal Mehta
9/15/2016 10:16:51 am

I'm planning on using Nicholson's article in my courses, b/c it gets some major things right, but does so in such a sloppy and ill-argued way. Perfect for teaching b/c there is so much to pick apart -- will make my students think!

More specifically, the essence of his claim that high schools, in particular, are not highly engaging places, is supported by lots of different kinds of data -- studies of the level of challenge of instruction, studies which ask students about their engagement levels, studies which beep students and ask them their emotions at that moment. The Pianta study you quote also supports the idea that even in elementary schools, much instruction focuses on basic skills and does not ask them to reason, think critically, etc.

I agree with you that a) unstructured schools only work for some, and "what worked for me" would work for everyone else is a terrible way to argue; b) substitute teaching is not a good way to draw inferences about education as a whole; c) all those simplistic tropes you list at the bottom should be banished (but they won't be).

A few of us (Rick Hess, Jeff Henig and me) are putting together a project on education and the media -- exploring how the incentives of the media ecology distorts the information the public gets about schools. Let me know if you'd be interested in taking part.

Educationally Incorrect
9/15/2016 11:20:51 am

That "unstructured schools work for some" is just an argument for no schools period.

I spent some time observing in the very school that Nicholson attended and the result would be almost the same if the school never existed and students just dropped out period.

Using the school's "logic" I could claim credit for teaching Dan Willingham everything he knows about cogsci through the miracle of independent study. You see, I granted him so much independence that he's had no idea I was behind all of his success! Till now :-)

Peter
9/18/2016 09:22:02 am

As a math teacher it frustrates me that a novelist would be so antagonistic towards words in a math class. It's almost sad that he cannot see the glorious power of the words unlocking the ideas of the math. Humanity cannot exist without the connections we create with words.
What he didn't say, which I suspect, is he doesn't really like young people that much. He may praise them, but I don't sense a willingness to engage them, challenge them to LEARN NEW THINGS as committed teachers do.

son j link
10/8/2016 01:42:17 am

nice one http://www.danielwillingham.com


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