LOVE...and hate. This is so true and it makes me so sad and fearful for our future. GPAs are completely meaningless now, students have zero knowledge and limited skills...in areas w/$$ and educated parents, tutors are often employed to teach- teach, not get extra help- writing, reading, literature...it makes me sick.
The worst part is that the tutors know this too and they also see that what parents want isn't the learning or the skill; it's the grade. I know more than a few tutors who make a killing in wealthy areas who are less than ethical about what one-on-one tutoring means. They turn into really, really expensive ghostwriters and student-impersonating emailers.
Great post! At the moment, I've started presenting at conferences and folks flock to hear "Help! I don't know how to teach writing!" What I have to say isn't particularly profound, but they crave hearing it.
I can't help but think teacher training isn't partially to blame. Many respond that they weren't taught how to teach it. Others explain they so lack in skills--a symptom of their own education--that they feel incapable of teaching it.
The worst interpretation, of course, is that multiple choice is easier. The end.
Teacher training isn't to blame, thought it is truly horrible.
The teachers graduated from the same public schools I described above and they also know basically nothing. They lack a wealth of information to draw on, so how in the world could they teach anything other than the sorriest outline of the story of their subject. They didn't write much in high school or college either. And grade inflation is rife at the university level, the ONLY exceptions being gatekeeper courses that lead to a technical/professional degree.
No worries about not commenting back. I reread your post about teachers and subject matters. You're certainly not wrong.
While my degree is in Philosophy and Religion, I took literature courses for fun and easily passed my content exam. Except when I first mentioned this on the job ten years ago, where folks who studied English with English degrees *failed* their English exams the first time, I sort of made enemies. I've learned not to talk about that particular detail.
Your indictment on Teachers Pay Teachers is spot on. I'm no fan. Just like textbooks, the materials are so heavily scripted that content knowledge itself becomes irrelevant. But when you (meaning me) point out how said books are intellectually incoherent and accomplish the opposite, you make different enemies. For many, questioning textbooks begs the question whether you are sane. Not that I'm speaking from experience... 😬
As always, I enjoy reading your writings. Your brutal honest is refreshing.
Sad, but accurate. This was my song with the whole "critical thinking skills" push. It does zero good if they have no knowledge base about which to think critically.
I took a Canadian history survey course in my first year of university. The professor gave us a set of about 30 exam questions in advance, of which about half would actually appear on the exam. We would then choose 5 of the questions that appeared. I used my notes and the textbook to create essay outlines for each question and then regurgitated the essays when I got into the exam. When the professor handed the exams back she asked how I prepared because my essays were full of facts and the others weren’t. This bewildered me. It was a history course. How could you write a history exam without facts? But it sounds like my classmates learned to write the way the students described in this article did: meaningless word salad.
What an excellent piece. I just shared with your wife. We're going to go back and read your 5-part series. We homeschool our four kids, but this is still really helpful and inspiring to us. Thank you.
I don't know how History can leave anyone indifferent or unchanged. I see how it can be easier to connect to than Literature, although I think if taught well and at an engaging pace, Literature can also be a riveting subject that intertwines with History.
What format do US high school History exams have? I took A-levels (British system) when I graduated high school and these were essay questions with hours to write, and no cap on length that I remember. When revising you'd typically do a lot your own research and reading, beyond the material covered in class. Really a researcher's and reader's dream. As far as I understand, A-levels are like a broader/more in-depth AP.
There are no end of year exams in American. Each teacher MAY give students a final exam, but there's no requirement at most schools that there be one, only tradition. In the age of mastery-based grading, tests are a thing of the past.
You know, I wrote something with that same title but not I'm thinking I'm wrong. Public schools aren't dead, but they are factories that mass produce death: death of reading, death of the written word, death of curiosity, death of wonder. I guess the one benefit I can see at this point is that you make it out with your soul and desire to learn more intact, your spirit may be damn near impossible to destroy.
they kill the joy of learning because they are simply indoctrination. Think of then money we would save NOT doing that. think of the minds and hearts and excellent children that could be unschooled in other ways. we would have more time to bond with them, the would be more secure in all ways.
Excellent analysis, young lady! I remember well you being the only history teacher there worth anything. I also remember the consternation you caused colleagues by constantly challenging them to do better! Lol. The kids loved you though. Who knows what crops those seeds you planted will produce...
Probably a Civil War. Hopefully in California at least... once you're out. Then again, I think you might really really enjoy molding your ODD kids into an elite battle group.
This essay is spot on, it vividly brought me back to my experience in the classroom (graduated in 2021.) I honestly can say, looking back on it, I wish I was challenged more. Never having to study or put in too much effort set me back a little not just in college but in life as a whole. Thankfully, my wonderful dad gave me that great gift of literacy. Thanks for reminding me what a lucky duck I am!
This is 100% spot on. I wish we'd listened to our instincts early instead of having to SCRAMBLE to catch up for our kids, but there you are. Thank you for keeping this conversation wide open.
The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. In this case, you've got both. Even if they don't do it now, they will understand and respect and HONOR what you did when they begin to understand the benefits they derived from it AND what it cost you.
Personally, I think that relevance is key, even before fundamental knowledge. The why of something grabs us more than the what. Tying the what to something familiar can illuminate relevance. I think that’s a factor in what you’re describing. In relation to history, I remember a prof whose modern district chorus was nothing but strings of facts that drew no connection to societies, governance, etc. as factors to draw linkages that would make them relevant. Similarly, I recall boarding school, chemistry teacher, unable to convey any kind of relevance to what we were learning… as an adult today I see that relevance in so many aspects of daily life. An English prof was determined to draw out the phallic symbolism of iris in DH Lawrence’s gardens but somehow left that in the realm of iterary technique — where’s the why? IMO, learning comes from understanding how the knowledge we build applies in the world we inhabit, the world that is real to us, that is foreseeable, or aspirational. Teaching a grad class in the implications of digital systems on knowledge building for governance and other purposes, I found that my students were wanting facts to regurgitate. As this was a remote course, lot of writing was required in order to display the meaning of those facts in various contexts. I set limits on length for exactly the reason you site… But find that the craft of writing is a skill even graduate level students do not possess today- it takes time they don’t have. Woe betide the future functionary with poor skills in sense making.
So relevance is all in our own heads. If I have the mental models and pre-existing knowledge, I can tie things together. If my knowledge is weak, I may be conflating instead of comparing, BUT the process of sorting through the knowledge we already have to tie the new information on... well, that's where relevance comes from.
They have to already KNOW something related or you can talk 'til your blue in the face and not make a damn bit of difference since they have no reason to hold onto those ideas.
As for grad students not being able to write, well, I'll point back at college level grade inflation which is real and pervasive. They've never been held accountable for their scribbling. As long as they get passing marks for junk, they will keep producing junk.
Colleges have HUGE incentives to keep post grads in the loop. They pay more than undergrads and they can often be used for very, very cheap labor.
One of your sentences triggered this memory for me. You mentioned asking your students to compare two sources on the same topic. As a freshman in my college Developmental Psychology class, I wrote an essay attempting to compare James Dobson's book Dare to Discipline to A.S. Neill's Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing. As I was single and had no children, the idea of child discipline was not personally familiar to me, except as I had grown up with a system much like Dobson's. It almost blew my brain to compare such extremes in this area - there were almost no similarities, and so many differences it wasn't possible to list them all. Fifty years later, I can still recall the struggle.
I recently homeschooled/tutored a friend's 15-year-old daughters in American History. Beginning with Columbus, we worked our way up through the Civil War, using the library for "living books." They drank it up like thirsty animals at a trough. I had to re-learn it all myself, one step ahead of them. It was so good for me. I would have loved to continue. I wish I had done that when I homeschooled my own children, but as a former public school teacher, I was still hooked to the textbook and workbook style of teaching. One book that amazed me was Uncle Tom's Cabin. I'd heard so much about the book, from both sides, but had never actually read it. It's an eye-opening read. The author uses it to sermonize on her views, but also to illustrate them. It was good to finally read the book for myself (at age 68!) and see what the allusions and references were about. Made me wonder whether a lot of the comments about "Uncle Toms" were from people who had never actually read the book.
I love the newer homeschool curricula that focus on "living books." A story will stick in a child's mind when dull facts won't. Connect them together, add in some maps and a timeline, and it all makes sense. Just a guess, but public school teachers probably don't have time for that; not to mention that PS students come to school with minds that barely want to be entertained, let alone instructed.
Once again, it's my contention that we need to go back to either much smaller schools and class sizes, or homeschooling if we want to reverse the modern trend of illiteracy. You alluded to the fact that many students have learned to produce "word salad" - a multiplicity of words that mean absolutely nothing but give the illusion of knowledge. We see it in political discourse; but I've seen it for years in educational and medical writing, as though wordiness equates knowledge. Writing or speaking a clear, simple sentence actually takes more knowledge than obfuscation.
Agreed to all of it. It's the Feynman test -- if that one very effective method of assessment was taught to teachers in ed school, they'd quickly see how bad things are. I have little hope that they'd change because the public k12 system throws up so many roadblocks to effective teaching and learning, but at least they'd see it.
And thank you for taking those kids under your wing. They'll never forget what you did for them and hopefully will echo your service into eternity.
I had never heard of the Feynman technique, but that's [good] homeschooling in a nutshell. It's also very similar to what was done in the old one-room schools.
On another topic, what's your view on dissolving the Department of Education?
A lot of homeschoolers follow the classical model of education, which emphasizes the three stages of learning: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. In the grammar stage, the emphasis is on facts and memorization, thereby building a base of knowledge. Many criticize rote memorization as draconian and say the only thing that matters is that you know where to find the information, but actually knowing facts is a necessary part of learning. My husband teaches post grad students and notices how much they rely on their phones for basic information. It’s a frightening state of affairs.
What's more concerning is this, from Carl Hendrick's epic tweet this morning: "3. Novices Think Differently Than Experts: Novices often approach tasks with means-end analysis or trial-and-error methods or simple strategies because they lack the knowledge to recognize patterns or apply sophisticated approaches. In contrast, experts draw on rich mental models, using prior experiences and refined techniques to solve problems more efficiently. This difference means that novices need structured guidance to develop these mental models over time. Teachers can help by gradually introducing students to expert strategies, enabling them to progress from basic skills to more advanced understanding."
If they don't KNOW anything, how do they build mental models? If they know very little, how strong are those models? How do you hang any new structures off a structure with a shaky foundation and walls that aren't true and straight?
Basically, by not KNOWING basic facts and having a firm grasp on fundamental skills these kids waste all those years of their lives in institutions where they have no hope of actually being educated because they lack the neural network upon which to build out mental models.
All these kids are building on foundations of sand.
This is a wonderful essay. Thank you for sharing! The state of public schools is very troubling. But it does seem (largely on the local and state government level) like the tide is slowly turning. I'd love to ask you a question. If you had the opportunity to issue one policy change on the federal level aimed at improving K12 education, what would you prioritize?
LOVE...and hate. This is so true and it makes me so sad and fearful for our future. GPAs are completely meaningless now, students have zero knowledge and limited skills...in areas w/$$ and educated parents, tutors are often employed to teach- teach, not get extra help- writing, reading, literature...it makes me sick.
The worst part is that the tutors know this too and they also see that what parents want isn't the learning or the skill; it's the grade. I know more than a few tutors who make a killing in wealthy areas who are less than ethical about what one-on-one tutoring means. They turn into really, really expensive ghostwriters and student-impersonating emailers.
Sounds like education in the 18th century.
they are employed...because they aren't being taught at school and parents who have any resources at all are desperate. It is utterly maddening.
Yes, that is what I wrote.
Great post! At the moment, I've started presenting at conferences and folks flock to hear "Help! I don't know how to teach writing!" What I have to say isn't particularly profound, but they crave hearing it.
I can't help but think teacher training isn't partially to blame. Many respond that they weren't taught how to teach it. Others explain they so lack in skills--a symptom of their own education--that they feel incapable of teaching it.
The worst interpretation, of course, is that multiple choice is easier. The end.
But I could talk for days here...
Teacher training isn't to blame, thought it is truly horrible.
The teachers graduated from the same public schools I described above and they also know basically nothing. They lack a wealth of information to draw on, so how in the world could they teach anything other than the sorriest outline of the story of their subject. They didn't write much in high school or college either. And grade inflation is rife at the university level, the ONLY exceptions being gatekeeper courses that lead to a technical/professional degree.
Teachers aren't subject matter experts, so how in the world are they supposed to teach coherent writing in that subject? I wrote about that too. https://educatedandfree.substack.com/p/your-kids-arent-learning-teachers?r=b8lae
Sorry it took me so long to comment back!
No worries about not commenting back. I reread your post about teachers and subject matters. You're certainly not wrong.
While my degree is in Philosophy and Religion, I took literature courses for fun and easily passed my content exam. Except when I first mentioned this on the job ten years ago, where folks who studied English with English degrees *failed* their English exams the first time, I sort of made enemies. I've learned not to talk about that particular detail.
Your indictment on Teachers Pay Teachers is spot on. I'm no fan. Just like textbooks, the materials are so heavily scripted that content knowledge itself becomes irrelevant. But when you (meaning me) point out how said books are intellectually incoherent and accomplish the opposite, you make different enemies. For many, questioning textbooks begs the question whether you are sane. Not that I'm speaking from experience... 😬
As always, I enjoy reading your writings. Your brutal honest is refreshing.
Sad, but accurate. This was my song with the whole "critical thinking skills" push. It does zero good if they have no knowledge base about which to think critically.
It’s such a basic thing that everybody forgets. If you don’t know anything, how can you think about anything?
I took a Canadian history survey course in my first year of university. The professor gave us a set of about 30 exam questions in advance, of which about half would actually appear on the exam. We would then choose 5 of the questions that appeared. I used my notes and the textbook to create essay outlines for each question and then regurgitated the essays when I got into the exam. When the professor handed the exams back she asked how I prepared because my essays were full of facts and the others weren’t. This bewildered me. It was a history course. How could you write a history exam without facts? But it sounds like my classmates learned to write the way the students described in this article did: meaningless word salad.
The fact that she didn't mention this as a possible strategy to first-year students is... mind-boggling because SHE probably never did it.
This kind of anecdote drives me nuts.
What an excellent piece. I just shared with your wife. We're going to go back and read your 5-part series. We homeschool our four kids, but this is still really helpful and inspiring to us. Thank you.
Thank you for another fabulous post!
Those 11th graders were very lucky.
I don't know how History can leave anyone indifferent or unchanged. I see how it can be easier to connect to than Literature, although I think if taught well and at an engaging pace, Literature can also be a riveting subject that intertwines with History.
What format do US high school History exams have? I took A-levels (British system) when I graduated high school and these were essay questions with hours to write, and no cap on length that I remember. When revising you'd typically do a lot your own research and reading, beyond the material covered in class. Really a researcher's and reader's dream. As far as I understand, A-levels are like a broader/more in-depth AP.
Oh you adorable British human.
There are no end of year exams in American. Each teacher MAY give students a final exam, but there's no requirement at most schools that there be one, only tradition. In the age of mastery-based grading, tests are a thing of the past.
https://educatedandfree.substack.com/p/your-kids-arent-learning-mastery?r=b8lae
Please check out my latest on American Peace Officer. I address the relationship between crime and literacy (and illiteracy)
Just posted some of it to X. Thank you for the great read.
public schools are dead,
You know, I wrote something with that same title but not I'm thinking I'm wrong. Public schools aren't dead, but they are factories that mass produce death: death of reading, death of the written word, death of curiosity, death of wonder. I guess the one benefit I can see at this point is that you make it out with your soul and desire to learn more intact, your spirit may be damn near impossible to destroy.
they kill the joy of learning because they are simply indoctrination. Think of then money we would save NOT doing that. think of the minds and hearts and excellent children that could be unschooled in other ways. we would have more time to bond with them, the would be more secure in all ways.
Excellent analysis, young lady! I remember well you being the only history teacher there worth anything. I also remember the consternation you caused colleagues by constantly challenging them to do better! Lol. The kids loved you though. Who knows what crops those seeds you planted will produce...
Probably a Civil War. Hopefully in California at least... once you're out. Then again, I think you might really really enjoy molding your ODD kids into an elite battle group.
This essay is spot on, it vividly brought me back to my experience in the classroom (graduated in 2021.) I honestly can say, looking back on it, I wish I was challenged more. Never having to study or put in too much effort set me back a little not just in college but in life as a whole. Thankfully, my wonderful dad gave me that great gift of literacy. Thanks for reminding me what a lucky duck I am!
This is 100% spot on. I wish we'd listened to our instincts early instead of having to SCRAMBLE to catch up for our kids, but there you are. Thank you for keeping this conversation wide open.
I'll be doing penance for the rest of my life. I legitimized the system by my presence in it far, far too long.
We are also experiencing not insignificant social exclusion for making a change.
The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. In this case, you've got both. Even if they don't do it now, they will understand and respect and HONOR what you did when they begin to understand the benefits they derived from it AND what it cost you.
Personally, I think that relevance is key, even before fundamental knowledge. The why of something grabs us more than the what. Tying the what to something familiar can illuminate relevance. I think that’s a factor in what you’re describing. In relation to history, I remember a prof whose modern district chorus was nothing but strings of facts that drew no connection to societies, governance, etc. as factors to draw linkages that would make them relevant. Similarly, I recall boarding school, chemistry teacher, unable to convey any kind of relevance to what we were learning… as an adult today I see that relevance in so many aspects of daily life. An English prof was determined to draw out the phallic symbolism of iris in DH Lawrence’s gardens but somehow left that in the realm of iterary technique — where’s the why? IMO, learning comes from understanding how the knowledge we build applies in the world we inhabit, the world that is real to us, that is foreseeable, or aspirational. Teaching a grad class in the implications of digital systems on knowledge building for governance and other purposes, I found that my students were wanting facts to regurgitate. As this was a remote course, lot of writing was required in order to display the meaning of those facts in various contexts. I set limits on length for exactly the reason you site… But find that the craft of writing is a skill even graduate level students do not possess today- it takes time they don’t have. Woe betide the future functionary with poor skills in sense making.
So relevance is all in our own heads. If I have the mental models and pre-existing knowledge, I can tie things together. If my knowledge is weak, I may be conflating instead of comparing, BUT the process of sorting through the knowledge we already have to tie the new information on... well, that's where relevance comes from.
They have to already KNOW something related or you can talk 'til your blue in the face and not make a damn bit of difference since they have no reason to hold onto those ideas.
As for grad students not being able to write, well, I'll point back at college level grade inflation which is real and pervasive. They've never been held accountable for their scribbling. As long as they get passing marks for junk, they will keep producing junk.
Colleges have HUGE incentives to keep post grads in the loop. They pay more than undergrads and they can often be used for very, very cheap labor.
I think we are in agreement after all ;-)
One of your sentences triggered this memory for me. You mentioned asking your students to compare two sources on the same topic. As a freshman in my college Developmental Psychology class, I wrote an essay attempting to compare James Dobson's book Dare to Discipline to A.S. Neill's Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing. As I was single and had no children, the idea of child discipline was not personally familiar to me, except as I had grown up with a system much like Dobson's. It almost blew my brain to compare such extremes in this area - there were almost no similarities, and so many differences it wasn't possible to list them all. Fifty years later, I can still recall the struggle.
I recently homeschooled/tutored a friend's 15-year-old daughters in American History. Beginning with Columbus, we worked our way up through the Civil War, using the library for "living books." They drank it up like thirsty animals at a trough. I had to re-learn it all myself, one step ahead of them. It was so good for me. I would have loved to continue. I wish I had done that when I homeschooled my own children, but as a former public school teacher, I was still hooked to the textbook and workbook style of teaching. One book that amazed me was Uncle Tom's Cabin. I'd heard so much about the book, from both sides, but had never actually read it. It's an eye-opening read. The author uses it to sermonize on her views, but also to illustrate them. It was good to finally read the book for myself (at age 68!) and see what the allusions and references were about. Made me wonder whether a lot of the comments about "Uncle Toms" were from people who had never actually read the book.
I love the newer homeschool curricula that focus on "living books." A story will stick in a child's mind when dull facts won't. Connect them together, add in some maps and a timeline, and it all makes sense. Just a guess, but public school teachers probably don't have time for that; not to mention that PS students come to school with minds that barely want to be entertained, let alone instructed.
Once again, it's my contention that we need to go back to either much smaller schools and class sizes, or homeschooling if we want to reverse the modern trend of illiteracy. You alluded to the fact that many students have learned to produce "word salad" - a multiplicity of words that mean absolutely nothing but give the illusion of knowledge. We see it in political discourse; but I've seen it for years in educational and medical writing, as though wordiness equates knowledge. Writing or speaking a clear, simple sentence actually takes more knowledge than obfuscation.
Agreed to all of it. It's the Feynman test -- if that one very effective method of assessment was taught to teachers in ed school, they'd quickly see how bad things are. I have little hope that they'd change because the public k12 system throws up so many roadblocks to effective teaching and learning, but at least they'd see it.
And thank you for taking those kids under your wing. They'll never forget what you did for them and hopefully will echo your service into eternity.
I had never heard of the Feynman technique, but that's [good] homeschooling in a nutshell. It's also very similar to what was done in the old one-room schools.
On another topic, what's your view on dissolving the Department of Education?
It has to be done. Will it? I don't know there's a lot of fat little piggies feeding at that trough.
A lot of homeschoolers follow the classical model of education, which emphasizes the three stages of learning: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. In the grammar stage, the emphasis is on facts and memorization, thereby building a base of knowledge. Many criticize rote memorization as draconian and say the only thing that matters is that you know where to find the information, but actually knowing facts is a necessary part of learning. My husband teaches post grad students and notices how much they rely on their phones for basic information. It’s a frightening state of affairs.
What's more concerning is this, from Carl Hendrick's epic tweet this morning: "3. Novices Think Differently Than Experts: Novices often approach tasks with means-end analysis or trial-and-error methods or simple strategies because they lack the knowledge to recognize patterns or apply sophisticated approaches. In contrast, experts draw on rich mental models, using prior experiences and refined techniques to solve problems more efficiently. This difference means that novices need structured guidance to develop these mental models over time. Teachers can help by gradually introducing students to expert strategies, enabling them to progress from basic skills to more advanced understanding."
If they don't KNOW anything, how do they build mental models? If they know very little, how strong are those models? How do you hang any new structures off a structure with a shaky foundation and walls that aren't true and straight?
Basically, by not KNOWING basic facts and having a firm grasp on fundamental skills these kids waste all those years of their lives in institutions where they have no hope of actually being educated because they lack the neural network upon which to build out mental models.
All these kids are building on foundations of sand.
Wow. Well said.
The Tweet: https://x.com/C_Hendrick/status/1850090706288689227
This is a wonderful essay. Thank you for sharing! The state of public schools is very troubling. But it does seem (largely on the local and state government level) like the tide is slowly turning. I'd love to ask you a question. If you had the opportunity to issue one policy change on the federal level aimed at improving K12 education, what would you prioritize?
End federal involvement in education.
It should always be community-controlled. Even the states should have little to no say.
K12 education is the Ring of Power and therefore too dangerous to entrust to anyone but directly involved parents and community members.
"No, we are not going to fix the public schools": https://daveziffer.substack.com/p/no-we-are-not-going-to-fix-the-public
They could be great, but only if they are decentralized. It's the Ring of Power otherwise.