The Importance of Involving Classroom Teachers
A 36-year veteran educator examines how the 1960s reform era sidelined classroom teachers -- and what it cost American students in special education and beyond.
"Teachers should have a leading role in what happens in their classrooms."
Up until the 1960s, elementary classroom instruction was based on the most effective procedures developed by classroom teachers, and American education was ranked number one in the world.
A downward trend began with "New Math" and reading programs that discouraged the use of phonics. These programs were developed within higher education and were supposed to be more effective than the procedures favored by the great majority of classroom teachers.
That downward trend accelerated in the 1980s, when the evaluation of classroom instruction was changed. Teachers were no longer recognized as having individual, yet effective, styles of teaching. Higher education created new criteria it considered more effective in the classroom, and this became the new basis for teacher evaluation and continued employment.
The author's related article, "Whatever Happened to Arithmetic," offers parents an explanation of the origins and use of "New Math" in the elementary school curriculum.
When the book was written, St. Lucie County, Florida had two K-8 schools. Today there are eleven, with a twelfth under construction. The middle school concept, with its varied mix of grade levels, was another product of the 1960s, and it apparently does not offer the educational continuity that a K-8 school does. Its sketchy record of success is most likely due to teacher competence, rather than the application of new psychological theory or school organization.
