Texas Renaissance

Texas has made a conscientious effort to improve education, but the tone has been largely negative. There has been too much harping on the negative. We need to set a more positive tone. We need to start imagining the benefits Texas will derive from a better educated population.

I believe Texas can expect a renaissance in business, the arts, and politics.

We need to expect good results from good education, then we must make those good results come true!

Robert

Writing Style

We have all seen "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White, which promoted simple and direct prose. The famous educator, Jacques Barzun, penned a book on writing titled, "Simple and Direct."

A Chinese scholar made the same point long ago. Han Yu, 768 - 824 A.D., recommened this same type of writing style. He called it "guwen", where he recommended simple prose, unencumbered by elaborate style or affectation. "Guwen" translates as "classical prose", referring to the style of the ancient philosophers, like Confucius.

The Chinese have much to contribute to education.

Robert

Morality and Education

The great Chinese scholar, Chu Hsi (Zhu Xi), said repeatedly moral principle is the root or foundation of learning.

Schools that avoid discussion of morality cannot produce well educated people when the graduates have no common understanding of morality.

Let's put Chu Hsi in perspective. He was born in 1130 A.D., the 12th Century, which was the High Middle Ages in Europe. Civil War broke out in England in 1135. The Second Crusade was launched in 1145. Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170 and Chu Hsi died in 1200.

Chu Hsi wrote extensively on learning. When he says moral principle is the root of learning, we should listen.

Also notice that he did not write about education. His perspective was on the responsibility of the student: learning. After all, education is the combination of teaching and learning.

American pedagogy focuses on teaching, while the culture most succesful in schooling focuses on learning.

There is a lot we can learn from the Chinese.

Robert

The Best of East and West

Re-Education by Ann Hulbert was in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, April 1, 2007. The article describes how China is working to introduce an American style liberal arts approach to college education with more emphasis on critical thinking and originality and less emphasis on memorization. China wants to increase its competitiveness and seeks "a creative mix of the best of East and West."

This is in line with what I have been saying: we need to borrow the best China has to offer in education to better compete against China. Each side, East and West, has gone too far into its favorite approach and neglected the less favored approach. The West has gone over-board with critical thinking and has neglected teaching basic knowledge and skills.

In the Winding Spring Process of Education, acquiring knowledge and skills is the extension of knowledge in the learning phase of the process.

Robert

Teaching Reading and Putting a Man on the Moon

A recent article in the New York Times (March 11, 2007, p. 3 in the Business Section) by Denise Caruso talks about how we can put a man on the moon but we cannot teach children how to read. Her article, "Knowledge is Power Only if You Know How to Use It," says "reading creates conflict," but if we "study enough examples of effective human know-how" then we will be able to "come up with a process that spurs solutions to problems as predictably as technological know-how does today."

We should decline gifts from the Trojans. Many of the problems we have in education today were created by so-called experts who have taken simple tasks like teaching reading and botched the job. Then they want to be paid in perpetuity to continue botching the problem until doomsday.

The public schools need to protect themselves from charlatans, especially the ones with Ph.D.s or Ed.D.s

John Dewey's Ideas Reflect Confucianism

If you study John Dewey's ideas on education and then study Confucianism, you will see that Confucius was expressing some of the same ideas 2,500 years ago that John Dewey expressed in the 20th century.

Check this link for more details

Education for Wisdom

The January 18, 2007, issue of the Wall Street Journal had an editorial by Charles Murray entitled, "Aztecs vs. Greeks." There he said the most important aim of education is wisdom. Then he says,

"The encouragement of wisdom requires being steeped in the study of ethics, starting with Aristotle and Confucius. It is not enough that gifted children learn to be nice. They must know what it means to be good."

"The encouragement of wisdom requires an advanced knowledge of history. Never has the aphorism about the fate of those who ignore history been more true."

"In short, I am calling for a revival of the classical definition of a liberal education..."

These are exactly my sentiments and this explains why the Winding Spring Process of Education has such a strong emphasis on history during the high school years.

Robert

The Five Steps of Studying

The Doctrine of the Mean identifies five steps in studying
1. Study extensively
2. Inquire accurately
3. Reflect carefully
4. See clearly
5. Practice earnestly

I showed my son how to apply these 5 steps to his 3rd grade science project.
You can go here to read more about the 5 steps.

Confucianism is the key to education for the 21st Century.

Attitude is Everything, Chu Hsi Tells Texas How to Succeed with TAKS

The state of Texas uses a test called TAKS, Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, to check the progress of its students. Some schools and some segments within schools have been failing consistently for years. Some people now want to abandon the TAKS test rather than fix the underlying problem.

One such person is Texas State Senator Florence Shapiro. On page 5 of her last newsletter of 2006, under the section on student assesments, she talks about beginning to abandon the TAKS test. She wants to use end of course exams, but does not tell you that end of course exams were used before the TAAS tests, which preceded the TAKS. In other words, she wants to return to the failed system that led to the TAAS and TAKS tests in the first place.

There are many students in Texas that fail the TAKS because they do not want to pass it. They do not care. No matter what test you give them, no matter what curriculum you use, no matter how many teachers or administrators you fire, you cannot force students to learn who do not want to learn. This is the most stubborn problem in education.

Changing the test again is just a way to avoid the problem and perpetuate failure. What can we do? One approach is too see what one of the most important educators in history had to say. Chu Hsi lived in China from 1130 to 1200 AD. Here is what he said about a student's attitude:

"Students must firmly establish their wills, the desire to learn....The students' great failing is their wills are incapable of pressing on....Where the mind is headed is what is meant by will....the mind must have the will to learn if the student is ever to advance."

We must address the attitudes of failing students if we are to make continuing progress in education. Sometimes a student's bad attitude is a reflection of bad attitudes from the parents, so parental support is also important to improving student performance. This is the hardest problem within education, but we will never succeed unless we tackle it.

Abandoning the TAKS test is a huge mistake, even if it is done incrementally by dropping it first in the high schools. No test, no curriculum, no staff changes can compensate for an attitude that despises education.

Robert

ps:
The quote I gave from Chu Hsi comes from page 104 of "Learning to be a Sage" by Chu Hsi, translated by Daniel K. Gardner

The Timeless Way Foundation

The Timeless Way Foundation works to improve communities through the Winding Spring Process of Education, which is a contemporary application of The Great Learning (the Ta-hsüeh or Da xue). The Great Learning is an ancient masterpiece. The Winding Spring Process of Education is an integrated approach to education. This process integrates the community, the families, the schools, and provides a roadmap for creating healthy, prosperous communities.

There are four documents at this website describing the Winding Spring Process of Education.

Education for the 21st Century

I am starting this blog to discuss educational reform. The world around us is changing so rapidly that current efforts for educational reform are doomed because they strive to prepare our children for a world that no longer exists.

We need to prepare our children for a future that does not yet exist.

We must prepare our children for a future beyond our imagination!

Robert