[Squeakland] Assessment, a good book, and assorted rantings

[Aaron Lanterman]

I was reading the recent thread on the use of EToys as an "assessment"
tool, and wanted to throw in a few thoughts.

My wife and I recently read "Teach Your Own," by John Holt. The
examples in the book are rather dated (for instance, there's a lot of
references to the new hot field of "solar polar," and a other parts
that peg it as a product of the 70's), but there's a second edition
that's been updated up Holt's followers. I would strongly recommend it to
anyone interested in either education in general or their children in
particular. Even if you don't think homeschooling (I would prefer the term
"hybrid schooling," which I made up, since homeschooling gives the
impression that one stays at home all the time) is a good idea, the book
still contains much applicable wisdom.

"Teach Your Own" ushered in the modern homeschooling movement (that is,
homeschooling for non-religious reasons). After reading it I began to
shudder every time I hear the word "assessment." I am a university
professor, and although Holt's book is aimed at the traditional K-12 age
ranges, it completely changed the way I think about my job.

> This has special meaning to me because my daughter, like me when I was in
> lower school, tends to make careless errors on math tests from going too
> fast. So this keeps her out of some of the advanced math pull-outs. Yet the
> kids in those pull-outs come to her for help because she knows the math and
> if she doesn't, can figure it out very quickly or knows who to ask and
> isn't afraid because she is very confident about her ability to understand
> what she will hear as a response. This seems to me to be a very big failing
> in this particular school anyway.

I remember when I was in 5th grade (let's see, that would be around 1980)
we had these awful timed tests where you had to finish 100 inane math
problems - addition, subtraction, multiplication, whatever - in a very
strict time limit. If you didn't finish or you made any error at all, you
couldn't go on to the next one. You had to repeat a particular level over
and over until you could do it perfectly in the time limit. Those tests
were some of the the most frustrating and assinine things I've ever
encountered.

I've taken real analysis, point-set topology, measure theory, and
differential geometry. My PhD thesis involved a lot of stochastic process
theory. I use math on a daily basis in my research.

But as I child, I just couldn't do those damn timed tests without nearly
breaking out into tears. I would get nervous and shaky just thinking about
them. I want to go back in time and find whoever designed those tests,
crumple them up, and... well, this is a family-oriented list, so I
shouldn't go into details.

Alan wrote in one of his essays that most of what we call "learning
disabilities" are simply a manifestation of adults' inability to come up
with anything resembling a reasonable learning environment for many
children. AMEN BROTHER! Speak the truth! Expose the lies!

> Another truly important idea about children which should be part of
> any learning environment, is that different children learn
> differently and for different reasons. Though this seems like an
> unremarkable observation, most learning environments do little to
> nothing to deal with these most important facts.

This reminds me of my wife's experience in the trenches teaching 7th and
8th grade French. She taught for about three years, and had some
difficulties but overall enjoyed it, since the kids in her class were
people who were interested in learning a foreign language in general and
French in particular. Everything went to hell when some well-meaning adult
got the bright idea to make everyone take a foreign language. This sounds
like a good idea, but Holt's book made me realize that any attempt at
forced education is pointless and frustrating for all involved. My wife
had to spend almost all of her time dealing with the kids who (a) weren't
interested in learning a foreign language at that time and (b)
particularly RESENTED being put in a foreign language class.

She got out of teaching shortly after that, and now makes far more pay and
gets far more respect as a technical writer and as a translator than she
ever did teaching.

No ADULT could sit for 6 hours a day being forced to learn things against
their will according to someone else's schedule, so why are we surprised
when children resist?

- Aaron, who promises he'll get off his soapbox now :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Aaron Lanterman, Asst. Prof.       Voice:  404-385-2548
School of Electrical and Comp. Eng.    Fax:    404-894-8363
Georgia Institute of Technology        E-mail: lanterma at ece.gatech.edu
Mail Code 0250                         Web:    users.ece.gatech.edu/~lanterma
Atlanta, GA 30332                      Office: GCATT 334B