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  #1  
Old June 25th, 2009, 12:15 PM
James Brody James Brody is offline
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Arrow Charles Murray: On Real Education

A trucker on Father’s Day, to his son: “Trucking’s in my blood, now figure out what’s in your blood.” WLW, 700AM, about 3 A.M., 6/20/09

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I stumbled over Charles Murray’s Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality (2008) NY: Random House/Crown Forum. 168 pp. txt, 40 pp. notes. I read it in an evening and three days later, I read it again!

Murray advocates here and in his earlier book, Human Accomplishment, Aristotle’s concept of happiness, a star that guides us to do well the things that we enjoy doing most. It follows that education is our sail and rudder for that voyage and it must be individual, personal, and relevant. Unfortunately, we are lost but as Murray concludes “The implication is not to stop trying to help, but to stop doing harm. Educational romanticism has imposed immeasurable costs on children and their futures. It pursues unattainable egalitarian ideals of educational achievement at the expense of attainable egalitarian ideals of personal dignity.”

Wow!

His basic points:
1) Ability varies. Admit it! The students certainly know their standing as if measured by micrometers. Lying to them builds not self esteem but cynicism.

2) Half the children are below average. Not a changeable fact according to 15,000 studies, including the Coleman, Title 1, and No Child Left Behind assessments.

3) We send too many to college although only the top 10% in ability can handle college material. College has responded to its market with its own versions of special education: dumbed-down courses, for example, in psychology, urban studies, and education.

4) America’s future depends on how we educate the academically gifted. On the other hand, neither Murray nor I trust a new BA with running our government! Fundamentals of citizenship and history are to be accomplished for everyone in elementary and secondary school; the sense of a higher ethic is to be cultivated by a traditional liberal (not leftist!) education.

5) Let change happen. Most who go to college want a better living, not a better life. College is a necessity because we say that it is and “all my friends are going.” Change in American education can and will occur through private and charter schools, online resources, and home schooling.

Murray advocates that schools be safe and orderly, achieve individual assessments in the first grade, deliver a “core knowledge” curriculum in elementary and secondary school, and provide earlier and more choices in career and technical skills. (A good plumber is apt to be happier and better paid than an average manager: the same student could be either one but is now levered into college because he “will make more.” Not necessarily!) The BA is irrelevant and, for many, a “punishing anachronism.” (Thomas Sowell agrees!) Certification of competence¬ – used by Public Accountants – puts students, regardless of schooling onto a common yardstick.

Bottom lines:

1) Michelle Rhee is a reformer, a superintendent in Washington, D. C. It’s hard to imagine the parents of one of her students– especially a mother – arguing with Murray. It’s also fun to imagine the new scripts when a “cure” for low aptitude is found. “My son may have had a black grandfather and his aptitudes suffer because of it. Please fix him…” Such has already happened for impairments with high blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, it will happen with aptitudes.

2) Enabling consumers will remain a problem. “Combine the parents who are buying education heedlessly and those who are buying indulgently, and we do not have consumers who inspire sellers to improve their product.” (A biologist would recognize this as another chance for “free riders” and cheats to take advantage of communal assets. When parents pay, when governments pay, when loans are available and easily defaulted, cheating soars.)

3) Students in the left half of the aptitude curve and their mothers have argued for an extended special education ladder that starts early, ends with a BA, and ends with privileged, permanent access to jobs. Again, expect cheating, a sense of entitlement, and massive indignation when consequences happen. Murray may have found a way around this impasse.

4) On the contrary, “They will have succeeded if they discover something they love doing and learn how to do it well. To say that this accomplishment is more important than making a lot of money and more important than fame or prestige is not idealism. For those of us who have been lucky enough to be happy in our adult vocations or avocations, it is the reality of our lives.”

Amen!

Suggested:

Boortz, Neil (2007) Somebody’s Gotta Say It. NY: Harper Collins. Biting, riotous clips from his life, including observations about “government schools.” Boortz bought pencils for his KG kid; the teacher put them into a big box and explained, "These are for everybody."
Finn, Chester E. (2008) Troublemaker: A Personal History of School Reform Since Sputnik. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. “Checker” Finn was one of the most persuasive, consistent advocates for assessment of schools. And he’s still at it!
Mathews, Jay (2009) Work Hard, Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin. They moved in on 50 or so Hispanic students, held class from 7 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., six days per week, and took personal calls until 10 p.m. for homework help. Dramatic improvements by Hispanic students, disappointing with blacks.
Murray, C. (2003) Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts & Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. NY: Harper Collins.
Murray Charles (2007) Intelligence in the Classroom. WSJ Opinion. January 16. http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009531
Sowell, Thomas (1993/2003) Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas. NY: Simon & Schuster.
Steele, Shelby (2006/2007) White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. NY: Harper Collins.
Thomas, Clarence (2007) My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir. NY: Harper Collins.
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  #2  
Old August 6th, 2009, 12:35 PM
James Brody James Brody is offline
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Exclamation "Grade Whores"

THIS IS FROM A COLLEGE PROFESSOR IN TEXAS w/ OVER 35 YEARS OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

"Quite a lot of my co-workers are grade whores, which makes me stand out quite a bit & not in a good way. Since I teach at a public-funded institution, I am allowed to flunk students who cannot or do not do the required work. The administrative people above the professors continuously pressure us to give "productive grades" (defined as a C or higher) but frankly that is not possible if one's students stop coming to class, do only half of the required work, or fail all of the work that they do. Some of the higher-level administrators have had some classroom experience decades ago, but for the most part they are seriously out of touch regarding the motivational level of our students in the sophomore level classes. These people would possibly stop bothering us about "retention" if each one taught one lower level class per year. They are apparently blissfully unaware of the reality in college classrooms at this point in time.

"The state govt of TX mandates about the first 60 hours in any public school of higher ed, including the 2 "flagship schools" UTAustin & A&M. The private colleges in TX (numerous & flagrant in this huge republic) range from fabulous like Rice & the various med schools to the completely ridiculous, including many "prestigious" private colleges, where the profs are not allowed to flunk people. Right now UTAustin is having horrific problems due to admitting the top 10% of every TX high school. The top ten %, as you might expect, varies from school to school & town to town in college readiness and UT is running out of space for the non-top 10%. (They never bothered to look at an ancestor chart & realize that at some point the children & grandchildren etc would outnumber the # of spaces available even w/out the top 10% rule.)"
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  #3  
Old September 6th, 2009, 08:51 PM
ToddStark ToddStark is offline
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Default Re: Charles Murray: On Real Education

It's interesting to compare Murray's vision of education with fellow psychometric researcher Robert Sternberg. Sternberg identifies two destructive trends in education: hyper-democratization which ignores individual differences and teaches to the lowest common denominator (in agreement with Murray), and the philosophy of fixed traits, in which is is diametrically opposed to Murrary.

Sternberg agrees that psychometric testing identifies things that don't change very much over time, or even more closely approach genetic settings over time. However he disagrees with their significance to successful outcomes, and identifies various fluid factors that compensate for fixed traits. His "triarchic theory of intelligence" for example explicitly acknowledges that analytic intelligence (IQ) does not seem very amenable to modification, in spite of the trend named for Jim Flynn. But he thinks there is a much more fluid component in creative and practical intelligence and other more skill-related abilities that make better use of intelligence. Flynn seems to agree as well. Anders Ericsson and other researchers in learning research insist that just about anyone who can perform enough deliberate practice with quality feedback can acquire a very wide range of deep expertise. Some of their findings seem to run directly counter to the talent view.

Sternberg is particularly against Murray's suggestion because he himself performed particularly poorly on standardized tests, later becoming a leading researcher and scholar. Lots of examples of people who do poorly in tests but are brilliant thinkers and can learn to perform at very elite levels.

So Murray stands out as proponent of the view that fixed traits dominate outcomes and that only a tiny percent of us can and should benefit from higher education.

It is still an empirical question as to how many people who seem to have "no talent" can learn from Ericsson and Sternberg and improve their effective mental powers from what is determined by psychometric testing. But it is clear that some people can and have done it.

I think the closest I can come to seeing his viewpoint is by saying that it might be more trouble than it's worth for many people to try to find a way to perform at an elite level in some fields like advanced mathematics. And I agree that it makes no sense to educate as if there were no individual differences.

If there is a reason to take Murray's suggestions, I think it would be because we don't have the educational resources to better prepare less exceptional performers. However if we shift focus to them, and teach them how to learn, we may be able to make better use of more of the "low talent" population.

kind regards,

Todd

Sternberg interviews: http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/sternberg_interview.shtml

Last edited by ToddStark; September 13th, 2009 at 10:59 PM.. Reason: Added link to Robert Sternberg interviews
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  #4  
Old September 10th, 2009, 06:54 PM
James Brody James Brody is offline
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Cool "Fixed" Talents and "Acquired" Talents

"It is still an empirical question as to how many people who seem to have "no talent" can learn from Ericsson and Sternberg and improve their effective mental powers from what is determined by psychometric testing. But it is clear that some people can and have done it." Todd Stark

I'm not so sure about the clarity but I'm older than I was and now more rigid about what I believe. And another problem: I've accumulated more factoids consistent with my beliefs!

I wonder about the G contributions to little blue-faced Jewish kids in Odessa who, according to Isaac Babel, practiced their violins and wound up in Carnegie Hall, supporting their parents. Babel also practiced the violin but with a book on his music stand. He became an outstanding historian and story-teller about the Polish/Ukrainian wars and the Russian occupation of northern Ukraine...such a good writer that Beria, with Stalin's approval, had him shot.

There are also, I believe, "clocks" in human development and many of us "waken" in college, perhaps because of a clock or because we tripped into a course that resonated with our latent talent.

Kind of makes it nice that we're still experimenting and each of us is our own experiment with n = 1.

Jim
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  #5  
Old September 11th, 2009, 02:21 PM
ToddStark ToddStark is offline
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Default Re: "Fixed" Talents and "Acquired" Talents

Jim,

I don't disagree with your observations. I don't discount the concept of talent completely by any means, I just think it makes some sense to de-emphasize it when talking about what people are capable of doing, and that's where we may disagree. There are some areas where someone without native ability may be very hard pressed to achieve elite status, if it is even possible. But my feeling is that this is the exception rather than the rule in real life outcomes.

I would say that it is probably common, not rare, for people who do poorly on standardized tests to carve niches consistent with their own peculiar mix of talents and make much more of themselves than IQ or SATs would predict.

Anyway, that's my thinking.

kind regards,

Todd
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  #6  
Old September 15th, 2009, 10:50 AM
James Brody James Brody is offline
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Cool Self-Assembly & Environment

" would say that it is probably common, not rare, for people who do poorly on standardized tests to carve niches consistent with their own peculiar mix of talents and make much more of themselves than IQ or SATs would predict."

The following you already know. I record it here rather than depending on any of it to be available when I may need it later rather tan at the 3 AM when it arrived!

- Paranoid states, whether those of Gore or Squeeky Fromm. People retain facts that make sense, sometimes to them alone. I knew a young black male who complained of "stress" but was certain he, not Jack Person, was the true person in Arlen Specter's "one bullet" theory. His father had similar beliefs and a similar occupation.
- Newspaper content and the ones that we choose to read or quote.
- Responsiveness to a particular medication: we tend to take what makes us feel good.
- John's dad, a talented marketer, was out of work for two years but then "woke up" and, of 150 applicants, knew in advance that the job would be his. It was. "It's good to have my father back." The son is talented but also bipolar. Did he get a "propensity" for mood changes from his talented father? And did dad have a mood slump that led to his earlier termination?
- Loren Eiseley, anthropologist, became Provost at Penn and, with that title, acquired responsibility for the University library. He found the stack floors littered with classics whose glue fed the roaches. He collected and restored the debris of earlier generations just as he once did in caves.
- My cat, Max, scrambles to find me when I click a ballpoint pen. I scratch his ears and neck mostly by holding the pen level while he rubs against it.
- 1.5 million of us rode buses, planes, trains, and autos for a day in DC on the Capitol's lawn waving rude signs. This was a self-assembled event, different from that when six million Jews rode freight cars to ovens.
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