I’m not talking about C++ vs. Fortran here. I’m talking about actual spoken languages. I bring it up in this column for a couple of reasons: first, one of my kids really struggled with French this past year and I’m wondering if there are alternatives that might come more naturally for him (he’s high on the autistic spectrum, so language is a real challenge). That being said, we actually have a high proportion of kids in our school with language processing difficulties.

The other reason that is far more germane to technology is that the advent of Virtual High School and services like ePals mean that schools are no longer limited to a small number of languages in which teachers have expertise.

My European counterparts are probably scratching their heads right about now. Just to clarify, language instruction here in the States is generally treated as an elective; a couple years of a language and the average student is done, never to speak it again. In other parts of the world, it’s a given that students will learn English from an early age and will probably be able to speak in at least one or two other languages with some fluency by the time they graduate from secondary school.

If you live in Europe, this just makes sense (when you’re a couple hours by train from people who speak a different language, and might like to actually travel or conduct business someday, learning a foreign language is a basic skill). Similarly, in countries where different dialects exist (Mandarin versus Cantonese, for example), fluency in common languages like English is quite necessary.

We in the States are finally coming to grips with the fact that everyone else in the world doesn’t speak English and that we just might encounter the occasional non-English speaker. Geographically, Spanish seems like a no-brainer for us, although French is spoken just over that other border (and acts as a nice primer for Spanish). This being an increasingly global economy, Mandarin Chinese seems like a darn fine choice, too.

I took Japanese in high school and, although I’ve forgotten way too much of it, I have a much better understanding of Asian culture than I would have otherwise (IMHO, Asian cultures are far more difficult for the average American to understand than European cultures; a bit of insight into the way Asians think and do business should probably become one of those basic skills, too).

So what should we teach? Can Latin please die? There are just too many other good languages out there, whether available locally or via Web-based services to still teach Latin. What works best in your schools and what has been the most useful to your students? Folks outside the US, please feel free to chime in since we’ve only started getting a clue in the last week or so.

Source: ZDNet
http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1785

Three years after the president of Harvard, Lawrence H. Summers, got into trouble for questioning women’s “intrinsic aptitude” for science and engineering — and 16 years after the talking Barbie doll proclaimed that “math class is tough” — a study paid for by the National Science Foundation has found that girls perform as well as boys on standardized math tests.

Although boys in high school performed better than girls in math 20 years ago, the researchers found, that is no longer the case. The reason, they said, is simple: Girls used to take fewer advanced math courses than boys, but now they are taking just as many.

“Now that enrollment in advanced math courses is equalized, we don’t see gender differences in test performance,” said Marcia C. Linn of the University of California, Berkeley, a co-author of the study. “But people are surprised by these findings, which suggests to me that the stereotypes are still there.”

The findings, reported in the July 25 issue of Science magazine, are based on math scores from seven million students in 10 states, tested in accordance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The researchers looked at the average of the test scores of all students, the performance of the most gifted children and the ability to solve complex math problems. They found, in every category, that girls did as well as boys. (To their dismay, the researchers found that the tests in the 10 states did not include a single question requiring complex problem-solving, forcing them to use a national assessment test for that portion of their research.)

Janet Hyde, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study, said the persistent stereotypes about girls and math had taken a toll.

“The stereotype that boys do better at math is still held widely by teachers and parents,” Dr. Hyde said. “And teachers and parents guide girls, giving them advice about what courses to take, what careers to pursue. I still hear anecdotes about guidance counselors steering girls away from engineering, telling them they won’t be able to do the math.”

Girls are still underrepresented in high school physics classes and, as noted by Dr. Summers, who resigned in 2006, in the highest levels of physics, chemistry and engineering, which require advanced math skills.

The study also analyzed the gender gap on the math section of the SAT. Rather than proving boys’ superior talent for math, the study found, the difference is probably attributable to a skewed pool of test takers. The SAT is taken primarily by seniors bound for college, and since more girls than boys go to college, about 100,000 more girls than boys take the test, including lower-achieving girls who bring down the girls’ average score.

On the ACT, another college entrance test, the study said, the gender gap in math scores disappeared in Colorado and Illinois after the states began requiring all students to take the test.

Source: New York Times, United States
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/education/25math.html?ref=us

On the face of it, Luke Burton is a shining example of how someone from an economically disadvantaged background can succeed in education. His mum at one time was working in a chip shop and doing three other jobs to make ends meet, he didn’t go to a high achieving school and, by his own admission, he messed around in class more than he should have done.
Yet at 24 he is training to be an actuary with a big firm in London, has a maths degree from Oxford and an MA - the first graduate in his family. Why is it that some young people seem inoculated against less advantaged beginnings while others don’t? New UK and US studies are pointing the finger ever more clearly at particular kinds of parenting and home environments that do the trick. But the big money still doesn’t go into parenting education, despite research that proves it can be an enormous force for change. Yet stark facts suggest more finance for parenting education would be money well spent.

Attainment gap

Sizeable gaps in school readiness exist in the UK despite universal nursery education for three- and four-year-olds; in the US half the eventual gap in attainment between children from less advantaged and more advantaged homes exists when the child starts school. Here a bright but poor child can be overtaken in test results by a less bright child from an affluent home by age seven.

In England, poor children among the top performers in tests at 11 are much more likely to have lost that critical advantage by the time they take their GCSEs. All the money Labour has poured into the education system since 1997 has failed to increase the tiny numbers of young people from the lowest socio-economic groups getting into university. So why do Burton and others like him do so well?

Scratch the surface of Burton’s “disadvantage” and you soon start to see answers. He comes from Clevedon in Somerset and is the eldest of three. His father was a mechanic and his parents split up when he was small. Money was tight. His mum, Wendy Doig, had gone to what she describes as a “rubbish school - a Grange Hill type of school” where the idea of university was never considered, and she was seen as “posh” as she went on to work in an office rather than get pregnant or work in the local sausage factory.

But she chose to do part-time jobs rather than work full-time because she wanted to be in when the children came home from school. She also wanted money to pay for the Montessori nursery a friend told her was good. For Burton she feels that was a turning point. “Of all my children he was the most difficult to steer. It worried me how determined he was. I thought he was going to do something brilliant or terrible. I could see his strengths and the potential for disaster.

“I spent a lot of my time trying to find things to interest Luke. His playgroup lacked structure and it made him hyperactive. Joining Montessori was pretty key. That’s when the maths got off the ground.”

Burton remembers a male primary school teacher who told him he had potential and to stop mucking around. He remembers parents proud when he did well but who didn’t put him under pressure. He found it harder to respect teachers once he got to secondary school because there was less time to build relationships with them, but he does remember a maths teacher who took it as a given that he was going to university.

Burton’s mum remarried when he was 11, so he went to live with his dad for more freedom. His stepfather’s mother spotted a newspaper story about the Sutton Trust summer school at Oxford University for youngsters from families with no tradition of university. It was held at Magdalen College. “I thought: ‘This is quite nice. I’d like to come here.’ I didn’t know what other universities were like so it was not a big deal. It didn’t cross my mind that I wouldn’t get in once I’d decided to go.”

Doig says her own parents had been easy and supportive but she also read books on parenting to help her when the children were small.

Home learning

And it is that mindful attention to parenting style and home learning which is shown to be vital in a spin-off study from Europe’s largest piece of longitudinal research in this area - Effective Provision of Preschool Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE) - which for more than 10 years has been following the educational development of 3,000 children from the age of three for the government .

The study has proved that high-quality preschool can ameliorate the effects of social disadvantage and break the cycle of deprivation, but it needs to be coupled with a good home-learning environment.

This is backed by unpublished research carried out for the Equalities Review by Iram Siraj-Blatchford, professor of early childhood education at the Institute of Education in London and a principal investigator for EPPSE, with 24 of the families whose children were succeeding against the odds in their education. Half were on free school meals, more than half were living with a lone parent, and four out of five were living in deprived areas.

In-depth interviews uncovered strong evidence of an adult or adults in the child’s life taking parenting seriously and valuing education either in the immediate or wider family or the child’s wider community, such as a religious community.

She believes the shift towards sending reading books home with children, which began in earnest in the 1980s, may be having an effect now those children are parents. In the interviews, it is clear that parents and their children think success at school is down to working hard and concentrating on what is said in class; when they hit difficulties they are not deterred. By contrast, the children from poor home-learning environments put school success down to ability and feel helpless in the face of lessons they find hard.

The crucial importance of the home is also pointed out by a new study, which has documented income related gaps in areas such as literacy, numeracy and behaviour. It shows between one-third and half of these differences are the result of parenting style and home-learning environment. But it is a particular kind of parenting, described as “sensitive and responsive”, that works.

The research is based on data from 19,000 UK and 10,000 US children born in 2000 and 2001 analysed by Jane Waldfogel, professor of social work and public affairs at Columbia University in New York, and Liz Washbrook, a research associate at Bristol University’s Centre for Market and Public Organisation on secondment to Columbia. The analysis was delivered to a private summit on social mobility and education policy organised by the Sutton Trust and the Carnegie Foundation in New York in June. Ed Miliband, minister for the Cabinet Office, who leads the government’s efforts to tackle social exclusion, was one of the leading politicians and education figures who attended.

Detailed observation of children in the US part of the study found parenting style having the biggest impact on school readiness gaps between low-income and middle-income children, accounting for 19% of the gap in maths, 21% of the literacy gap and a massive third of the gap in language. Sensitive and responsive parenting had the biggest positive effect. Observational data was not available from the UK.

Waldfogel says sensitive and responsive parents are able to provide “warm, supportive and nurturing parenting” and can respond to a child’s changing needs. Experience of parenting received as a child may affect responses to your children as may personal temperament and stress, she says.

Parenting programmes can and do help. Sure Start has been found to improve effective parenting and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) announced last week that it was extending the pilot of the Family Nurse Partnership, which works with vulnerable young women expecting their first child. Early signs suggest improved aspirations among the mothers after an intensive visiting programme from nurses who work with them from pregnancy until the child’s second birthday, advising on healthier lifestyles, baby and childcare, and planning life goals.

Positive changes

Another successful and rapidly spreading UK scheme is the Peers Early Education Partnership (Peep), which has been proved to boost cognition and self esteem in pre-school children by promoting parents’ and carers’ awareness of very early learning and development, and supporting adults in their relationships with the children.

Peep programmes are delivered mainly in children’s centres but are gradually being taken direct to vulnerable parents in their homes. But the programme remains a charity rather than mainstream provision. The government is spending £1bn on its ambitious 10-year Children’s Plan to ensure a better deal for children - including making sure 90% of them are ready to learn when they go to school - but education in providing a good home-learning environment currently doesn’t figure in it.

Last week it was revealed that an 18-month government initiative aimed at helping parents of young children from disadvantaged families become effective supporters of their children as learners was successful in making positive changes to parents’ behaviour. The Early Learning Partnership Programme, funded by the DCSF and undertaken by researchers from Oxford University’s departments of education and social policy and social work, aimed to support parents in socially disadvantaged areas across England.

It brought together the main agencies in the voluntary sector working with the parents of children aged between one and three but, because it was only funded for 18 months, it could not show whether it made differences to children’s long-term learning.

One good piece of news came last week when the DCSF announced £12m in backing for the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People’s Services, which will gather and analyse information about what works in tackling a range of issues linked to child wellbeing.

This kind of work can’t come a moment too soon. Parenting is harder to influence, but without it good pre-schools and schools can only go so far - and it could take decades for the most disadvantaged to catch up.

Parental dos and don’ts

Sensitive and responsive parenting is about tuning into what your child needs from moment to moment, and adapting your behaviour.

Your child gets a new toy
Do watch how the child responds to the toy and let him/her explore it alone if he/she seems to want to
Don’t automatically show your child how it all works

A father bounces a child on his knee to cheer her up
Do watch for cues that the child is enjoying herself
Don’t carry on if the child cries. Think about what else she might need and experiment with meeting those needs, for example feeding or cuddling

Source: guardian.co.uk, UK
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2290865,00.html

Students are being taught maths at the most superficial level by teachers rushing to pass on the basic skills while shying away from complex ideas.

In yet another example of children being failed by national school curriculums, a special report for the state leaders finds maths teaching is failing students by setting the bar too low.

The National Numeracy Review report, released to The Weekend Australian, criticises the national benchmarks in maths, which assess students against minimum standards rather than requiring a desirable proficiency.

“The implication (is) that minimum standards are good enough, at least for some students,” says the report on numeracy commissioned by the Council of Australian Governments. “All students and their families, however, have a right to expect high-quality - not minimum - numeracy outcomes from their schooling.”

The review committee, chaired by the former head of the NSW Board of Studies Gordon Stanley, says the time spent teaching maths in classrooms has decreased over the past decade, yet students are expected to learn about a greater number of mathematical concepts.

“Curriculum emphases and assessment regimes should be explicitly designed to discourage a reliance upon superficial and low-level proficiency,” the report says. It recommends phasing out the streaming of students according to their ability, citing research that says it has little effect on achievement.

“It does produce gains in attainment for higher-achieving students at the expense of lower-attaining students,” it says.

The report recommends that all teachers, regardless of their intended speciality, be trained as numeracy teachers and maths be taught across all subjects.

The report says primary school students should spend five hours a week and high school students four hours a week on maths and numeracy, including time spent learning maths in other subjects.

The report also suggests introducing specialist maths teachers to work shoulder-to-shoulder with other teachers, particularly those without specialist training in maths teaching.

Source: Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24006438-663,00.html

If you were an energetic nine-year-old boy who loved school, did your best but also loved charging about, trying to beat your friends at every game possible, imagine the hell of our currrent state school system where ball games are banned from the playground in case someone gets hurt, there is no outside play in bad weather and you are constantly in trouble for being too competitive because winning is not what it’s about. And, worse, Jamie Oliver fruit smoothies have replaced sponge pudding in your school dinner, so you’re starving by two o’clock.

Sue Palmer is a former head teacher, literacy adviser and the author of 21st Century Boys. She says it is a biological necessity that boys run about, take risks, swing off things and compete with each other to develop properly. “If they can’t, a lot of them find it impossible to sit still, focus on a book or wield a pencil,” she says, “so their behaviour is considered ‘difficult’, they get into trouble and tumble into a cycle of school failure.”

Boys are three times as likely as girls to need extra help with reading at primary school, and 75 per cent of children supposedly suffering from ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are male. “We are losing boys at a rate of knots, particularly in literacy,” Palmer says, “because at some point in the past 30 years, masculinity became an embarrassment.”

Research by Simon Baron-Cohen, a respected Cambridge professor, that began as an investigation into autism, puts a solid case for biological male/female differences in the brain, with boys tending to be “systematisers” and girls “empathisers”. This explains why boys generally are less keen on reading and comprehension, and lag behind girls in literacy. A lot of boys find it easier to explain the workings of a watch than to discuss how a character in a story is feeling. “But now,” says Palmer, “apart from the very bright ones, boys aren’t even doing better at maths and science.”

Some people blame this nosedive, first noticed in the mid-Nineties, on the “feminisation” of education - too many women teachers, girl-friendly classroom environments and modular exam systems that suit girls’ study skills but disadvantage risk-takers. “Geniuses are much more likely to be male,” Palmer says, “but if you don’t tick the right boxes, you fail.”

There are seven times as many women primary school teachers as men, but Christine Skelton, Professor of Gender Equality in Education at Birmingham University, argues that there have always been far more female teachers than male. “Obviously there are some women who understand active boys, and some men who don’t, just as there are energetic girls and inactive boys,” she says.

The current generation of teachers, though, were born and raised in an atmosphere dominated by women’s liberation and “non-gender-specific” education that began in the Seventies. Barbies were banned, most protagonists in books were female and there was no tolerance of war or superhero play. As a head teacher, Palmer remembers making her reception teacher remove all the cloakroom pegs that depicted tractors for boys and bunnies for girls.

“The belief was that you were shaped by your environment, and it was the teacher’s responsibility to ‘socialise’ boys away from their natural inclinations and to encourage girls to study traditionally male subjects such as physics and technology,” she says.

Palmer would never deny that some of it was absolutely necessary - but with movements such as Reclaim the Night, Greenham Common and Gay Pride, groups that offered an alternative perspective to the traditionally dominant male view taking centre stage, masculinity became suspect. “I really think,” she says, “that the almighty cock-up of the sisterhood in the Seventies was that we believed we could turn boys into girls.”

Palmer says that most women are not natural risk-takers, so for teachers who have not helped to bring up brothers and who don’t have sons, boys’ behaviour can be frightening. “Play-fighting, for example, reaches a peak at age 7 or 8 but is not actually aggressive,” she says. “It’s social - it’s the way boys get to know each other and see how the other one ticks. A lot of women teachers are horrified when I suggest that they should let boys get on with fighting and shouting because eventually they’ll come out the other side and start negotiating.”

Another problem for boys seeking adventure is that, because we live in an increasingly risk-averse society, children are rarely allowed to play unsupervised. When did you last see a group of boys climbing a tree?

“There is a rational fear of increased traffic but also an irrational fear of stranger danger, fanned by media reporting of child abduction,” says Palmer. “Parents are worried about being considered irresponsible, so they never let their children out of their sight.” And because we are not used to seeing boys playing outside, when we do it feels hostile even when what is going on is not particularly boisterous.

Dan Travis, a sports coach, argues that it is very important for boys to muck about on their own. “Coaching is formal and necessary but should only take up 20 per cent of the time they play,” he says. “The informal 80 per cent is where most of the learning and practising occurs - away from adult supervision.”

Travis is running a campaign to bring competition back to school sport. “The Sport for All ethos took hold in the Seventies and never let go,” he says. “Games are only about inclusion, with no winners allowed.” This is disastrous for boys, who need to compete to establish their place in the hierarchy, which is how they organise their friendships and something that they understand from nursery age onwards. It is also bad for sport. Palmer adds that “self-esteem” arrived from America and now no child is allowed to “lose” at anything.

Palmer is not suggesting that boys should be allowed to behave in any way they want. What we need, she says, is to celebrate what makes them boys and help them to understand the things that don’t come naturally to them. That means getting them outside more, particularly as space gets squeezed in urban schools. “Not letting boys be boys is not only detrimental to them but also to girls, many of whom become overcompliant with what is considered ‘good’ behaviour and could do with a shove outdoors to take more risks,” she says. “I certainly wish that had happened to me.”

Palmer is especially enthusiastic about the few “outdoor nurseries” that we have in this country, and about the Scandinavian system that puts off formal learning until the age of 7 or 8, concentrating instead on playing outside and the development of social skills.

In the ideal Palmer world, everyone would go to a Scandinavian-style school. What we are doing instead is bringing in the Early Years Foundation Stage, a new government framework that becomes law in September. It says that by the age of 5 children should be writing sentences, some of which are punctuated. “That would be impressive for a seven-year-old,” says Palmer. “So rather than tackling the imbalance in the way that we have treated boys for too long, we are going to make them sit still and learn even younger. I’d call that little short of state-sponsored child abuse.”

21st Century Boys will be published by Orion in early 2009

Source: Times Online, UK
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article4288100.ece

National U.S. Department of Education studies show that high school students with strong math backgrounds are more likely to go to college, finish faster and earn more money. With today’s competitive job market, strong math skills are increasingly important for future success. Yet, the U.S. Department of Labor reports, only 20 percent of the workforce possesses the skills required by 60 percent of all new jobs early this century.

“Math skills are critical to the future success of our high school students and learning doesn’t stop in the classroom,” said Gail Burrill, math teacher and former president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). “Parents are a critical part of the equation for helping teens gain a strong foundation in math and making sure their children have the background they need to succeed.”

Burrill, who has been honored with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics, has several tips for parents to help their teen find the right path to math success:

1. Strong math skills start at home.

Whether or not you enjoy or were good at math yourself, children need encouragement to learn that hard work and persistence are important for success and understanding in math. Be sure they attend school on a regular basis. Be positive and inquisitive-ask how things are going in class, encourage your children to work hard and help them find solutions if they are struggling. By paying attention to your teen’s education and expressing high expectations for their success, they learn that their math education is a priority.

2. Math is important for any career.

People with strong math backgrounds are more likely to be employed and earn more, even if they have not gone to college. Math is also an important skill for people in all stages of life to make decisions about such issues as personal finance, health or property management. Without taking a challenging math curriculum throughout high school, teens’ career options will be seriously limited. Building a strong foundation in math should begin in middle school, allowing them to succeed in math through their high school years and beyond.

3. The right tools can make all the difference.

Math can sometimes be a challenge for even the best students, so make sure your student has the right tools for success. For example, research shows that students do better in math when they use a graphing calculator at home and in class, like the TI-Nspire from Texas Instruments. For additional help with class work, check with your student’s math teacher or counselor to see if your school provides resources, such as a homework hotline, organized study group, tutoring program, after-school program or even extra credit work. If not, check to see if your state education department or state mathematics organization offers some support.

4. Show teens that math is important in everyday life.

Showing students how to relate math to the “real world” will help them understand why it’s important. Figuring out the remaining cell phone minutes on their monthly plan, how to balance their first checkbook or the difference between the weekly cost of driving a car and taking the bus all require math skills. If students know that math can help them make good decisions every day, they are more likely to want to learn.

5. Ensure that they take four years of high-quality math in high school.

All students should be enrolled in challenging, high-quality math courses. If your student is entering high school in the next few years, plan to work with a counselor to create an academic program that allows your child to take a challenging math course every year to be sure he or she has the preparation that can open doors for career options in the future.

Source: North American Press Syndicate, NY
http://www.napsnet.com/articles/58766.html

DEAR DR. FOURNIER: I recently read your article answering a mother’s question about her daughter’s request to get tested for ADHD before taking her ACT/SAT college exams. If so diagnosed, the daughter could take them untimed and be prescribed ADHD medicine. In your column, you did not recommend getting diagnosed just for these exams.

I think you missed the daughter’s main point. I think it was obvious the student wished to be diagnosed so she could take the tests untimed.

Students specifically have a difficult time in the English and reading comprehension sections because of the amount of reading required to answer the questions.

What is wrong with giving a child more time to finish the test?

ASSESSMENT: Whether the student desired to get a prescription for ADHD medicine or merely wanted more time to take college entrance exams, my answer is still the same. I have worked with children for 28 years, and each year my office is inundated with calls from parents wanting to have their children tested and diagnosed with ADHD.

Unfortunately, many parents don’t want to go there. They would rather lie, cheat and steal: Lie to the doctors. Cheat the education system. And steal their child’s morality and innocence.

On another note, the letter you refer to specifically stated that the daughter wanted to get diagnosed with ADHD so she could take the ADHD pills as her her friends do. These pills are amphetamines — chemicals very similar to stronger drugs that can lead to addiction, depression, anorexia and even suicide.

Bottom line: No one should purposely get misdiagnosed with ADHD for any reason, whether or not he ever plans to take the medicine.

WHAT TO DO: Refuse to lower your moral standards to follow the crowd down the easy road. If parents are so willing to quickly sell their children out to cut a few corners, then why should we expect our children to make any different choices?

Even if you lived in a moral vacuum, there is another reason not to get your child misdiagnosed with ADHD. College boards and schools are quickly catching on to this trend, making the requirements more stringent to get untimed tests. Furthermore, if a student is somehow caught trying to beat the system, the stigma of being a liar and a cheat could follow him the rest of his life.

Will that student find success in school or the workplace if he is known to be dishonest? I surely wouldn’t hire anyone with that reputation.

Finally, there are many test-taking strategies and other ways to improve your child’s score on ACT/SAT exams. These skills will improve reading comprehension and allow your child to focus without the need of strong, mood-altering prescription drugs.

By using these methods, your child’s moral compass will remain intact, and you will teach your child a lesson in honesty that could last a lifetime.

Source: Henderson Gleaner, KY
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/jul/08/adhd-over-diagnosis-is-symptom-of-greater/

I can’t believe what I just read. We are going to spend millions for our teachers to teach our children how to be lazier.

The question was, “How do you solve the turkey problem if you are a third grader who doesn’t know how to multiply?”

If the kids are really supposed to stretch their math muscles, you teach them the multiplication tables in the second grade. Are our children as smart as we were? A teacher told me they are not. They sit in the classroom and will not listen, will not work, and will not try. This is not a learning problem, this is a parental problem.

Out with the rules, in with the real world. That’s the problem to begin with. We have become so lax in our parenting that we are developing generations of lazy, unproductive, overindulged children. Their parents grew up the same way. They only learn what is fun for them. They can tell you all the words to every song on their Ipod but they can’t remember 5 X 5 = 25. They can’t spell because they use text message lingo and everyone accepts that. Parents, teachers and society do not demand excellence from an early age, so the children don’t demand of themselves.

There are too many parents who think children will learn by osmosis. They are so self-absorbed with themselves and by life outside the home they don’t see or care what happens inside.

On the other hand, there are caring parents who teach their children self-control, the importance of learning and how to work for something they want. There are good teachers who have their hands tied when they try to teach excellence. Many are getting discouraged and changing their profession.

And there are children out there who put forth the effort to learn and apply it to a productive life. They are the ones I hope will become the teachers and leaders of tomorrow. The rest will be draining our welfare system forever.

There are some special-needs children who require special learning skills. They deserve all the help we can give them. However, we are raising generations of “special needs” children because parents are neglectful, society accepts mediocrity and school boards look for expensive ways and new fads to educate rather than teach the basics.

5 X 5 equaled 25 in 1930 and in 1960, and it still does in 2008. New Math didn’t work in the 60s and it will not work now. Stop wasting our tax dollars.

I cannot support the school board anymore until they start coming up with ideas that make sense. My vote will be “no,” until they get back to teaching basic principles and build from there.

Source: Idaho Press-Tribune, ID
http://www.idahopress.com/?id=11471

David Beckham has the art of scoring goals down to a tee: the action of putting boot to ball is ingrained and automatic, freeing him to conceptualise how the ball will pass the keeper and hit the back of the net.

It’s the same for school students: those who can write the letters of the alphabet automatically, without thinking what a T looks like, can concentrate on what they are writing rather than how.

Research conducted by Dr Christensen underlines the strong relationship between the component skills of handwriting and writing, basic maths facts and mathematic performance, and letter-sound relationships and reading.

In a study of handwriting, high school students were encouraged to write in journals every day while a second group undertook a handwriting program, simply focusing on the way they formed their letters.

After eight weeks, the handwriting group had dramatic gains in the quality of the text they produced while the first group showed no improvement.

In a study looking at reading skills, a group of Year 1 students were taught about making meaning from text by reading lots of books, talking about the stories and learning letter-sound relationships from the stories.

A second group of children were only taught decoding skills, learning letter-sound relationships to sound out and read isolated words. After 12 weeks, their comprehension had improved 40 per cent compared with the first group.

Dr Watkins said habit had been progressively erased from school syllabus documents since the 1950s and was no longer considered a goal of teaching.

Dr Watkins said handwriting was a prime example of the need for an automatic skill, yet it was taught in an ad hoc fashion in schools, and given little or no time in teacher training courses.

Source: The Australian, Australia
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23960556-12332,00.html

Teachers are misdiagnosing some children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when they are just naughty, psychiatrists have warned.

Only half of children teachers suspected of having ADHD were diagnosed with the condition by a mental health expert, a study found.

The results of the study carried out in East London will be presented at the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Children with ADHD cannot concentrate on school work or play and are easily distracted, forgetful or fail to follow instructions.

They also unduly noisy, restless and fidget constantly and often talk excessively, butt in to other’s conversations and cannot wait in line.

Estimates suggest that around 1.7 per cent of the population is affected by ADHD, mostly children and if it cannot be controlled with behavioural therapy then medication such as Ritalin is considered.

In the study, based in Tower Hamlets, 52 children were referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services team with ADHD-like symptoms over the course of one year.

The researchers said that they are unsure why teachers may be over-identifying children with possible ADHD diagnoses.

Lead author Dr Benjamin Keene, said: “Naughty children may at some point present symptoms but someone with ADHD has them at all times.”

They suggest that better educational resources need to be made available to teachers to help them accurately identify those children with ADHD, and that CAMHS teams should develop structured school observation tools or telephone interview schedules, so that identified children can be independently and expertly assessed in a classroom setting.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
http://tinyurl.com/6l74sw