To make my letter politically correct, let me share what I had to omit from my letter to Scholastic: There is enough shocking material written in the pedagogy of teaching to create a novel fit to rival The Da Vincic Code. But the people I need to reach are those who believe they are not smart enougjh to read a book like that. In fact, national statistics prove that segment of the population is growing. While graduation rates may be as high as 80%, in many cases, 79% of those alumnae are incompetent and must repeat remedial courses before they can enter college. Why? Let me share what I learned from research I studied in graduate school: There are certain appliances commonly used by schools that are detrimental to learning. Thes include: The Bell Curve, the grading system, minimum standards, and the use of one program to teach all. The Bell Curve regulates the distribution of achievement and proves a teachers instruction is competitive enough to always yield those same results. The grading system encourages teachers and students to forgp the pursuit of mastery. Minimum standards cannot be measured unless the use of creativity is marginalized. And all behaviroal scientists know each student processes information differently, so making schools impose a prevailing strategy such as a General Education Program or the new Core Curriculum Plan is destined to leave lots of children behind. While academia knows the educational system is not conducive to helping all children gain mastery, their hope is that a well-trained teacher may one day rise through the ranks to become an administrator who will change everything. But the nature of administration is to always replace the old guard with a like-minded person who makes changes that are too small and too slow to help each passing generation. Professors say a Hidden Agenda drives that system. That Agenda is admittedly under corporate control. My story, Beware of the Grouper, uses quotes that are familiar to students who struggle in school: go with the flow and sink or swim. Sound a little fishy? These words inspire me to relate my story to a species of fish that chooses to live freely or in schools. They are mackerel. They have three stages of development: fry, juvenile, and elder. Elders throughout the world are revered as teachers. My fish exist in a parochial school because the foundation for all schools worldwide is the church. That connection is commemorated at every commencement by the regalia that we wear. It is also embedded in the cult-like mechanisms used by academia to make everyone BELIEVE the system has each students personal interest at heart. As my main character, Small Fry, soon discovers, that belief is a devastating hoax. In the biography, Pulitzer: A Life, by Brian Dennis, Joseph Pulitzer is quoted as saying, Every man . . . presents the opportunity and a duty to say something courageous and true. Beware of the Grouper is that opportunity.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 19:24:31 +0000
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