A recent case from Pennsylvania teaches us an important lesson about why bullying is such a serious and persistent problem in public schools in the United States. Teachers and principals often allow bullies to say and do appalling things, day after day. A reasonable person may imagine that those teachers and principals fail to intervene because they are weak and permissive. Yet those supposedly weak and permissive adults can come down like a ton of bricks if one of the children who are being targeted by the bullies tries to defend him- or herself, even nonviolently. In other words, many teachers and principals actually condone bullying. Some of them actually participate in the bullying, while others simply take the bullies’ side. Education and human rights activists need to understand why an adult might behave that way.
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Is Logic Politically Incorrect?
I wrote my book Not Trivial to explain that children need direct instruction in phonics, grammar, logic, and other academic disciplines. To my delight, conservatives are embracing this message. True conservatives respect tradition, and they understand that some important skills can be developed only through direct instruction and practice. What surprises me is the push-back I get from some people on the left. Continue reading “Is Logic Politically Incorrect?”
Why Blame the Teachers When the Problem Is Higher Up?
If a company provides shoddy goods or poor services, many people love to blame the company’s workers, rather than its managers. Perhaps it’s human nature to blame the lowest-ranking available person whenever a problem arises. But if we really want to solve the problems in our schools, we must find the real causes of the problems. To do that, we must start our search at the top of the educational establishment.
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Dyslexia Is Not a Brain Disease
In August of 2013, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed two new bills that are intended to make it easier to identify students who have dyslexia, which is defined as a neurologic disorder that makes it hard for children to learn to read. Yet dyslexia is not really a brain disease. Scientists have known since the 1920s that dyslexia is the result of using “sight words” instead of phonics for teaching children to read English. We need to use effective methods to teach reading, instead of telling healthy children that there is something wrong with their brains.
Is Dyslexia Really a Learning Disability?
Dyslexia is a label that is commonly applied to children who seem perfectly normal, except that they have not learned to read in school. Yet the word dyslexia was not originally intended for that purpose. It was originally used in cases in which adults had lost their ability to read as a result of a brain injury, such as from a stroke or from a blow to the head. This loss of reading ability generally went along with other signs of brain damage, including other problems with vision or language. If a child who otherwise seems perfectly normal is not learning to read in school, we should be cautious about using medical terms like dyslexia, which imply that the problem is in the child (and specifically in the child’s brain and nervous system), rather than in the school.
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Why Trolls Attack!
The Internet was invented by scientists, so that they could share scientific information with each other. Today, however, it is used by all sorts of people, for all sorts of purposes. Some emotionally disturbed people use it to irritate people who would never interact with them socially. Don’t let them do this. Don’t argue with them. Just delete their comments and block them.
What I Learned From the McGuffey Readers
When I was a child, my parents bought a set of reprints of the old McGuffey Readers, which had been widely used as elementary school textbooks in the United States until the mid 20th century. When I was in second grade, I noticed that there was a shocking difference between my schoolbooks and the McGuffey books. Mr. McGuffey used a simple and direct method of teaching reading. Then, he gave children interesting things to read.
Why Not Let a Child Escape From a Bad Teacher?
To a child, having a bad teacher is like serving a long, undeserved prison sentence. And the sentence is long. A school year represents a huge proportion of a young child’s life. Unfortunately, the child is generally condemned to serve the entire sentence, without hope of parole or time off for good behavior. Who among us has not seen a bright, happy child become a miserable, underperforming student simply because he or she was assigned to a dysfunctional teacher who was making that child’s life a living hell?
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You Can Fix Stupid!
Comedian Ron White warns people not to marry somebody who is beautiful but stupid. He explains that a plastic surgeon can fix ugly, but “you can’t fix stupid.” The audience laughs. Who hasn’t had a painfully frustrating experience with a relentlessly stupid person? However, I think that Ron is wrong. You can fix stupid. Unfortunately, stupid doesn’t fix itself. Philosophy and education were developed specifically for the purpose of fixing stupid. If people are still stupid even though they’ve been through school, then their school needs to be fixed.
“Dirty Words” and Tourette Syndrome
Here’s Steven Pinker’s fascinating lecture The Stuff of Thought. He explains how the way we use language sheds light onto how we think and feel. In particular, he explains why certain kinds of words evoke such strong emotions that you can’t say them on television or over the radio.