I remember how it was -- JR
‘Community circle’ classroom fad is likely to do far more harm than good
America’s classrooms seem focused lately on just about everything except educating kids: progressive politics, social fads, psychological tinkering, fringe ideologies. Alas, we must add group therapy to that collection of non-academic pursuits: “Circle conversations” are appearing in more and more public schools, and even colleges like UC Berkeley — asking teachers to play the role of therapist, not educator.
The Twitter account Libs of TikTok caught attention when it shared an example of “community circles” at an elementary school in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District, requiring kids to keep anything said there confidential. This is in line with a “restorative justice” initiative in the district that seeks to make the “circle process” a regular part of the school day.
What exactly is this “circle process?” As a University of California Berkeley’s Restorative Justice Center manual describes it, it resembles a religious ritual more than a classroom practice, with opening and closing ceremonies, a centerpiece bearing trinkets or candles and a talking piece — anything from a popsicle stick to personal jewelry. The ritual begins; the “leader” asks prying and probing questions, encouraging the discussions of “difficult or painful events,” as participants pass around the talking piece and share.
The manual recommends discussion of topics such as when participants felt harmed or had themselves perpetrated trauma, how they deal with negative emotions and personal history. A manual for the San Francisco school district encourages teachers to ask questions that are “edgy” and “controversial” and to use prompts that solicit “more intimate exposure.” The idea is to incentivize, reward and encourage self-disclosure, confession and personal vulnerability.
Supposedly, these circles prevent misbehavior by providing emotional support. In reality, they are a clear example of pop psychology leaking into school rooms — an ongoing shift from schools administering academic services to providing emotional support, with the teacher as therapist.
To which the American Enterprise Institute’s Robert Pondiscio asks: “At what point does a school’s concern for its students’ emotional health and well-being, however well-intended, become too personal, too intrusive and too sensitive to be a legitimate function of public school?” Indeed, the circles run afoul of ethical, practical and political concerns.
First, the ethical. The American Psychological Association’s code of ethics discourages counselors and therapists from practicing outside their area of competence. In managing the volatility of human emotions, experience and expertise matter. Teachers have a basic grounding in child psychology, yes, but nowhere near the competence to manage the tenuous scenarios the circles can create. They’re experts in academic instruction; deputizing them into a counseling role far beyond that expertise risks adverse outcomes.
The practical issue: Do they work?
Circle conversations are a key part of an increasingly popular philosophy of discipline that involves “restorative justice,” curbing a school’s dependence on punitive discipline — suspensions, detentions, expulsions. Yet when restorative justice nudges out punitive discipline, misbehavior flourishes; classroom disruptions, bullying and violent behavior all increase.
Meanwhile, as schools phase out suspensions for small infractions, many end up assigning more total days of suspensions; they assign fewer suspensions but for increasingly severe behavior with more days of punishment, so kids wind up spending more days outside the classroom.
Finally, the political. To no one’s surprise, many of the circle topics reach far into left-wing politics. A resource site for Oakland Unified School District has a workshop called “Transforming Whiteness.” The Berkeley manual has questions based on the writings of Ibram X. Kendi and Robin D’Angelo, and it lists “colorblindness” and “invocations of meritocracy” as microaggressions to avoid.
Progressive buzzwords abound across the sites and manuals — intersectionality, equity, social justice and so on, alongside countless activities and questions that center reflection on immutable characteristics.
At best, these circle conversations create a discussion format that gets inappropriately personal for a classroom and bears little-to-no good results, as untrained teachers tinker with the psyches of their students. At worst, they’re a shoo-in for fringe, radical politics. In either case, they don’t belong in the classroom.
https://nypost.com/2022/04/15/community-circle-classroom-fad-likely-to-do-more-harm-than-good/
********************************************************Florida School Chief Rejects Math Textbooks Over ‘Attempts to Indoctrinate Students’
Florida’s Department of Education has rejected dozens of K–12 mathematics textbooks after officials said they include “indoctrinating concepts,” such as critical race theory (CRT).
According to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, his department reviewed 132 submitted textbooks and found that 54 of them, or 41 percent, didn’t meet Florida’s K–12 curriculum standards or contained prohibited topics.
“Reasons for rejecting textbooks included references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics,” the department said in an April 15 statement. “The highest number of books rejected were for grade levels K–5, where an alarming 71 percent were not appropriately aligned with Florida standards or included prohibited topics and unsolicited strategies.”
Specifically, 28 rejected textbooks “incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies” including CRT, 12 don’t properly align with Florida standards, and 14 were rejected for both reasons.
“It seems that some publishers attempted to slap a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core and indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “I’m grateful that Commissioner Corcoran and his team at the department have conducted such a thorough vetting of these textbooks to ensure they comply with the law.”
Under current Florida law, public schools are prohibited from teaching key concepts of CRT, such as that one should feel guilt or shame because of his or her race or that the United States is inherently racist. Florida parents can sue school districts they suspect of incorporating CRT concepts and recover attorney fees if they prevail.
In 2020, Florida officially removed Common Core and adopted the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (BEST) standards. The state plans to fully implement the new standard after 2023, giving school districts approximately three years to familiarize their teachers with the new benchmarks and purchase new textbooks and other instructional materials.
DeSantis called the new standards a “return to the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic.”
When it comes to math, the BEST standards promote a simplified approach and focus on the usefulness of content. The Florida framework also has an emphasis on getting the correct answer, rather than using the required method, meaning that students won’t lose points for the method they use as long as the answer is correct.
By contrast, Common Core math has long been criticized for expecting students to master several different new experimental methods to solve the same math problem. Following these methods, some teachers have created questions that are confusing or otherwise have no practical meaning, causing frustration among students and parents.
“It really goes beyond Common Core to embrace common sense, something that’s long been necessary,” DeSantis said in 2020, when he unveiled the new education standards.
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Why we’re giving $50M to charter schools to help kids catch up after the pandemic
By donor Michael Bloomberg
School closures and inadequate remote instruction over the last two years have created a crisis in public education.
The data are clear. Across the United States, students have fallen behind by an average of four months in math and five months in English. The results have been even worse for those children most in need, especially in schools serving mainly low-income populations, where students have fallen behind by an average of seven months.
Make no mistake: This is a real crisis requiring immediate intervention. Unless urgent steps are taken, many children will never catch back up.
That’s why it’s so encouraging to see that Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks have wisely expanded Summer Rising, which offers academics in the morning and enrichment activities in the afternoon. The program will serve 110,000 students in grades K-8, up more than 10% from last year.
Given the extent of the crisis, the private sector and philanthropic groups must step up, too. So to build on the city’s efforts and increase access to summer classes, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Kenneth C. Griffin, Stan Druckenmiller, the Carson Family Charitable Trust, Robin Hood, Gray Foundation and Walentas Foundation are committing $50 million to help charter schools create or expand summer-school programs this year. Through the initiative, called Summer Boost NYC, all the city’s elementary and middle charter schools can apply for funding to create and run high-quality programs.
We’ll focus on helping K-8 students most in need of additional assistance. Schools will have flexibility in how they use the funding, which will help them target resources to where they’re needed most, but each will offer a high-quality curriculum attentive to improving reading levels and math fluency.
The vast majority of charter-school students come from low-income households in black and Latino communities, and they deserve high-quality summer-school programs. Charter-school leaders are eager to offer them, but they need support to make it happen — for curriculum, salaries for teachers and staff, transportation and enrichment activities that involve social and emotional development. The funding we’re providing will help them pay for all those things.
Charter schools receive less in per-pupil state education funding than district schools, but the flexibility they have to empower teachers and principals — and hold them accountable for success — has produced extraordinary results. In New York City, charters outperform district schools by 10 points in English and more than 15 points in math. And many have reduced or eliminated the achievement gap with the state’s wealthiest suburbs.
More young New Yorkers deserve access to those opportunities, and our leaders in Albany should help provide them by lifting the state cap on charter schools.
Nevertheless, charter-school students — like all students — have suffered learning loss over the past two years. And like all students, they should have the opportunity to attend a summer-school program that will help them catch up and get back on track. For many students, it could make a lifetime of difference
https://nypost.com/2022/04/18/why-were-giving-50m-to-charter-schools-to-help-kids-after-covid/
***********************************My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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