Teachers should have a leading role in what happens in their classrooms.
Education in our country lost an opportunity to move forward in a positive manner when some parts of the education establishment moved too quickly with reforms in the 1960s. The promise of “new math,” middle school, and special education as important developments for the future of education was taken seriously in our school district.
The fact that there was no sound basis of successful classroom instruction upon which the concepts were constructed was side-stepped. In that process, classroom pedagogy began to be ignored as necessary criteria upon which school programs should be constructed. Classroom teachers became the silent voices in education.
Personal experience with “new math” and special education are discussed in the book. Levels of bureaucracy that separate school districts from the kind of decision-making authority that would have made a difference in educational opportunity for many students is also discussed. More local control over state mandates would have been helpful, especially for special education students.
There can be no move toward local control of education without the “voice” of classroom teachers. Organizations and spokesmen who represent various agendas “seem” to represent “classroom teachers.” However, only information generated by classroom teachers given directly to school boards would be the most reliable information of how they perceive their teaching environment. That information alone would, and could form the primary basis of movement to make local education more relevant to the student population.
Special Education reform is also discussed with a critical look at Child Study Team (CST) responsibilities and individual instruction.
Information about an un-published study on handedness by the author is presented. It is a comparison of the handedness of students identified as emotionally disturbed and the handedness of students in regular classes.
Frontal lobe development of the brain is briefly discussed. Parents who reported learning problems of their own tell when learning became easier.
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