SYNERGY-NET on
RE: Lath and plaster: Performance based education: Charter Schools
For years, in Chicago when you build a house you had to use the
Lath and Plaster method rather than wall boards. This was clearly
because of the political power of the Lath and Plaster's union.
Performance standard building codes specify the engineering
requirements for building rather than the materials or methods
used.
The difference here is between INPUT requirements and
OUTCOME requirements. People in education ( and maybe Airline
Safety and other areas of public regulation such as Chicken
Inspection ) seem to have a hard time understanding this
difference. It maybe difficult setting legal systems to manage
outcomes while inputs and process is easier.
Case in point is teacher certification.
The union, teachers
colleges and lots of other "special" interests hang on the a
complex set of requirements for teacher certification.
There is
no evidence it helps improve learning in school but supports lots
of professors of education and their required courses, training
programs, personal offices. All these groups don't want their
"iron rice bowl" taken away just as the lath and plasters union.
If you don't have input requirements you have to make judgements
or have real standards on performance, know what is going. Every
other country in the world ( Except the Philippines that copied
the American system) has external ( emphasis on external ) exams.
Again the same unions resist external inspection of their work.
It's hard of people to believe that taking a class in something
doesn't require any real learning.
There are lesson plans,
required textbooks, hours of attendance but no requirements than
anything be achieved.
The coach can teach " Social Studies" where
they discuss football. It happens all the time. Football has
external evaluation - you have to do something - win.
See Charter school below...
I can't teach in public schools with a Ph. D., a masters in
Education from Harvard, and 30 years of teaching experience and
in the top 2% of the academic talent pool, ( teachers are drawn
from the bottom 25% because of the working conditions and pay
scales ) because I don't have specific hours in specified
classes.
There are only a dozen or so qualified physics teachers
in the whole of the country partly because of these certification
requirements.
All teachers are paid the same ( except for extra for coaches and
administrators ) and people who can do something else mostly do
so.
The old system depended on talented women who had limited
career opportunities. Now they become accountants, managers, or
other better jobs. I can work in GB, and other countries but not
in the U.S..
The "hours" don't require "knowledge" only
attendance. High School graduates can't read, college students
don't know where Brazil is on the map. ( or much of anything else
).
The system of input regulation doesn't work.
The whole American school system has complex requirements but no
outcomes requirements. Attendance, hours rather than being able
to do something. Foreigners find this strange.
There are
100,000's of high paying technical jobs that can't find people.
Migration of foreign engineers continue. About 50% of students in
hard subjects in Universities are foreign, oriental or both.
The
long term effects will be to export high skilled work.
The unions
helped force American Manufactures to use off shore factories and
the American School System is forcing the export of high skilled
jobs.
noun, plural laths:
1. A narrow, thin strip of wood as a supporting structure for
plaster.
Peter E. Pflaum Ph.D.
225 Robinson Road New Smyrna Beach FL 32169- (904) 428-9609
Pflaump@wiredbrain.com
Global Village Schools
July 8, 1996
Mr. Trecey Bailey
1193 National Teacher of the Year
Director, Office of Charter Schools
Florida Education Center, 454C
325 W. Gaines St.
Tallahassee, FL. 32399-0400
baileyt@mail.doe.state.fl.us
baileyt@popmail.firn.edu
cc: Franklin P. Scharge, scharge@aol.com
The Scharge Consulting Group
The Edward de Bono Programme for the Design & Development of Thinking,
The University of Malta
create@unimt.mt, create@jaguar.is.unimt.mt,
Masters of Arts Creativity & Innovation
http://www.is.unimt.mt/~create/
RE: Internet Charter School: small, smart and sincere.
proposal is attached and on:
on
Wiredbrain home site/synergy/NEW/charter.htm or charter .txt
Dear Tracey:
Fear not to go where no school has gone before. Let's break the mold.
The time when information could be packaged, put in textbooks and into the hands in not the heads of teachers, has passed on and is long gone in many fields.
The Synergy Schools of the future learn by doing, and the students often know more than the "teachers." When industry moved from factories to professional work the institutional framework had to change from the top down, father knows best mode, management does the thinking and workers do as they are told style to newer synergy forms. That is the experiment here. It works if we are small, smart and honest.
I got your packet today and have lots of questions. Volusia county has not responded and I wonder if I have to ask them first. Maybe as part of the IB ( International Baccalaureate ). My resume is on site at
Wiredbrain home sitepflaum.htm
or click my name at the start of any page.
The idea is very simple but the implementation looks overwhelming unless I have partners. Digital AltaVista, Netscape, others are possible as well as some foundations. But where to start ? What I envision are a network of small schools, classes, ( like the IB ) connected through a server which we have (www.trevista.com ) so they share and use the Internet resources.
The core curriculum is learning by doing, a vocational program for the information age.
It works if we are small and honest with ourselves and others. If we had $ 10,000 to $ 100,000 and a board of established names then we would be in much better shape. That's not much money given the stakes involved in the welfare of the republic, I'm serious. New forms of education and training are perhaps our most critical problem. More than any foreign danger is the loss of skills and knowledge of young Americans.
The big, stupid hypocrites need some balance by the small, smart and sincere..
Take the tour of the technology on
Wiredbrain home site/synergy/tour.htm to get an idea of what I am thinking about. Real audio, Narrative Communications, VDO, ( see PBS ), plus Intranets via WinFrame for sharing of presentations, files, data, chat, and forming remote work groups.
Is there any start up funds ? Can we get a board together. We have sites for local small ( less than 20 ) schools in mind but I think the effort should be in remote sites. Any teacher in the state ( or non-teacher for that matter, but the legislation is wonderfully unclear ) could set up a remote site. It works if we are competent, committed, hard working and sincere and honest.
Small Smart and Sincerely Yours,
Peter E. Pflaum, Ph. D. ( A.B. University of Chicago, Ed. M. HGSE, Harvard University, Ph. D. FSU. )
Copies of the SYNERGY JOURNAL sent by request: Pflaump@wiredbrain.com
SYNERGY-NET on
Wiredbrain Geocities http files/
Peter E. Pflaum Ph.D. , Headmaster GLOBAL_VILLAGE_SCHOOLHOUSE
225 Robinson Road, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169-2176 (904) 428-9609
Pflaump@wiredbrain.com