In episode three, Dan and Ed explain their objections to the cookie-cutter (standardization) approaches corporations and many high profile non-educators have forced on education.
These groups intentionally bypass the proven advances of the past which revolved around educators spending time with students, learning how they learn, and working to understand the progression which best drives student engagement and retention.
They are damaging children and replacing the concept of education with inculcation.
In the future is teaching to be based on inculcation? If so, who has the right to identify the “facts” which are force-fed using tests to determine what is taught? How did this takeover of instruction come about?
Dan discusses some of the history behind the standardization movement.
In this episode, Dan and Ed identify forces hurting children. Forces at work in America that are not based on what is best for the child. These forces are driven by ideologues who have little or no experience as educators. Many are looking at ways to personally profit from the money taxpayers pay for education. The movements they have started are called Education Reform, or Corporate reform. Most boil down to little more than complex efforts to kill or forever alter public schools. In this episode Dan introduces the pivotal concept of Transformation, a required concept for future episodes and educators everywhere.
In this introductory episode, Dan and Ed informally discuss the concerns of parents and teachers about the state of American education. They focus on what they have collectively learned from almost 100 years of experiences as teachers, researchers and administrators.
They believe education must be focused on each individual child and back this up through a wealth of knowledge about experiential education. They further bolster these observations and lessons with knowledge drawn from both sides of the table parent/educator table while sharing insights into what parents need from teachers and the education system as a whole.