tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10727233.post7126878168668062909..comments2023-10-17T05:09:09.069-05:00Comments on <center>Lanny on Learning</center>: Are we Ketman?Lanny Arvanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597426421997599777noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10727233.post-39603435552687413172010-08-09T06:20:48.497-05:002010-08-09T06:20:48.497-05:00Ravitch argues that the new reformers have a model...Ravitch argues that the new reformers have a model of liberal education --- constructivism --- coupled with a conservative approach to the business model --- market driven. But in her description of how reading is "taught" all I could see was pedantry. It seems to me that the reformers have captured the label for the pedagogy. A cynical view of that is it serves propaganda purpose rather than a view of how students learn.<br /><br />It is hard not to be cynical here, I know, but if we tried would these views be so far apart? It is also possible that the Wikipedia reference on Hirsch is itself part of the propaganda.Lanny Arvanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05597426421997599777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10727233.post-81238261085590373422010-08-08T17:27:15.111-05:002010-08-08T17:27:15.111-05:00In my view, Hirsch's work helped fuel the mani...In my view, Hirsch's work helped fuel the mania for high-stakes testing, and his notion of "cultural literacy" is an Escher drawing of teaching people what everyone in the culture already knows. At its nadir, the drafting of the "dictionary" was largely the work of four grad students sitting in a room speculating about what a banker probably knew. I wish I were kidding.<br /><br />I don't know how Hirsch votes, but it seems odd to call him a liberal. His blanket rejection of Dewey is not in my view well-considered.It's also worth noting that his "what every child should know" series has been quite a profitable industry for him and his assistants. Nothing wrong with making money, of course, but he's certainly been good at playing the broader, more superficial market in ways that are more like Kaplan test prep than they are like genuinely thoughtful educational affordances. Again, in my view.<br /><br />Ravitch was an early Hirsch supporter. Has that changed?Gardnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13298202257401928048noreply@blogger.com