MESSAGE
| DATE | 2012-02-13 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] It shouldn't happen to a dog
|
On 02/13/2012 04:47 PM, Elfen Magix wrote:
> It has never been about education of technology or the technology of education. I wrote the 250 page doctrine that put computers in the classroom in 1984. As I stated then, it was about leveling the playing field for children to learn faster than just at their pace. Studies back then showed that the computer being modeled after a TV, and using students how to use the computer, they get it in their mind that they are controlling the magic screen that they think is the TV, and in doing so, they learned at a quicker pace. My First Alphabet had children as young as 4 reading and achieving a high vocabulary!
>
> But when you miss those basic skills of reading, writings and mathematics; then you have done more harm than good to the child when placing them in front of the computer. Let me give the case of the "Child Prodigy Program" (the CPP) of mid 1970s. Created and funded by Edward Teller (That Eward Teller) certain children who were highly gifted in specific skills were only taught those skills. If a child excelled in math, then they only taught math to that child. It became harder and harder to teach children other subjects after two years of this progam. When funding ended, and the City was in a money crisis, Mayor Beame killed the program, pushing for the IGC (Intelligently Gifted Child) program instead. Nearly all of the CPP children went into the ICG program, and they were forced to stay away from their gifted skills and to learn everything that they should have been taught in regular classes from the beginning. Children in the CPP who were multifacetted
> in their skills, those who had more than one ability did better than those with a single ability. A boy named John, was a mechanical genius, and for the 3 years he was in the program, they gave him small machines to figure out and if broken - fix it. With him it got to a point where he repaired a 1600 century clock and a car's transmission. He was labeled Special Ed because he was minimal in his regular academic skills. Another child who was Math, Music and Science skilled, did well enough to graduate from Brooklyn Tech in 1981. He was me.
>
> To present date: I was handed what I was told as a severely retarded girl. She has a long history of immigration issues even though she and her brother were born here in the states making them citizens but their parents were illegal. She and her family was deported to Mexico when she was 6 months old. Add a shlock lawyer trying to make a name for himself and 10 years in the world court, it was decided that the children have to return to the USA, and her parents brought with them as well. Money money damages were awarded as well. During these 10 years, the girl never went to school and worked on a family farm. If she went to any school it was one of those old one room schools with children of many grades in one class. She did speak and write Spanish well, but here in NYC she was tested in English and from her low score, labeled retarded.
>
> I was given her to teach her one on one to get her to minimal skills. I discovered there was nothing wrong with the child other than being a Native Spanish speaking person. So I managed to get her back into a normal classroom setting, translating the work into Spanish for her. At the same time I tutored her in English. Apparently she did so well under me that the school board thought that some form of cheating was done - here is a girl labeled as retarded going exceptional on her state wide exams! She was tested and retested, in front of investigators, translators, special education experts, psychologists - you name it they were there. She passed every test threw at her and one so called expert dared to bring finger print and DNA testing on the girl. When it was explained that I was her teacher, I explained it to them that they fucked up in called her retarded and has mislabeled her accordingly when she should have been labeled as English Deficient -
> Native Spanish Language person.
>
> Because of this, it makes me wonder how many children are in this position, how many are left to suffer or things they already in another language. In working with Arabic kids, I noticed that they do math differently but always arrive at the same answer as in the textbook way but they are made to suffer relearning it the school's way. Putting these children in front of a computer would do nothing for them. Nothing at all. They require a proper assessment and not pigeon holing them into learning deficient categories when they dont belong there.
>
> Sometimes its the school's fault in not providing proper services. Other times its the school board. In the cases above, its both. It is the school's direction under Bloomberg that kids are made to suffer. He dont care how the grades are achieved, as long as they are achieved but while not giving the schools the proper materials to do their jobs. Putting the best kids in the so-called best schools, and the worst kids in the worst schools and expect them to be equal on all terms is a farce. Teachers can only do what they can with what little they got.
>
>
This is the most well written thing I've ever seen you write. Get me a
copy of this for the NYLXs website so i can put it under resources.
Excellent!
Ruben
>
> ________________________________
> From: Ruben Safir
> To: NYLXS
> Sent: Monday, February 13, 2012 9:47 AM
> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] It shouldn't happen to a dog
>
>
>
> Oh GOD
>
> iBelieve, iCan, iWill,
>
> I'm fucked!!!
>
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/education/mooresville-school-district-a-laptop-success-story.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
>
> February 12, 2012
> Mooresville’s Shining Example (It’s Not Just About the Laptops)
> By ALAN SCHWARZ
>
> MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Sixty educators from across the nation roamed
> the halls and ringed the rooms of East Mooresville Intermediate School,
> searching for the secret formula. They found it in Erin Holsinger’s
> fifth-grade math class.
>
> There, a boy peering into his school-issued MacBook blitzed through
> fractions by himself, determined to reach sixth-grade work by winter.
> Three desks away, a girl was struggling with basic multiplication —
> only 29 percent right, her screen said — and Ms. Holsinger knelt
> beside her to assist. Curiosity was fed and embarrassment avoided, as
> teacher connected with student through emotion far more than Wi-Fi.
>
> “This is not about the technology,” Mark Edwards, superintendent
> of Mooresville Graded School District, would tell the visitors later
> over lunch. “It’s not about the box. It’s about changing the
> culture of instruction — preparing students for their future, not
> our past.”
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