July 3, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: 'Public Schools Are Archaic' Proposes Radical Changes in Education Infrastructure to Allow Students to Learn at Their Own Speed
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Among the definitions of "archaic" in my dictionaries are the following: "primitive, belonging to an ancient time, obsolete."
All of the above are apt descriptions of today's public schools as described in M.R. Ussery's "Public Schools Are Archaic" (Outskirts Press, Inc., Denver, CO, edited by S. R. Pargman, 70 pages, $11.95).
Ussery, who lives in Washington state, has an Ed.D (doctorate in education) and says our public schools haven't changed in essentials since the Boston Latin School opened in Boston, MA in 1635. "Each year the system procreates itself as a carbon copy of what it did the year before," he writes. 21st Century public schools, he writes, need "deep educational reform."
Things are bassackwards in today's public schools, he says: "In a typical public school classroom TIME is CONSTANT, and LEARNING is VARIABLE. Time allotted to learning a set body of information is one semester or term. Unfortunately it turns out that LEARNING is the VARIABLE because no two students digest the same amount of information at the same speed. Teachers spend a constant amount of pouring knowledge into student receptacles (brains). Students retain variable amounts of learning."
The aim, he writes, is to make learning the constant and time as the variable.
In today's school environment, Ussery says, "very few teachers have the time, knowledge or technical skills they'd need to produce individual systems of learning. Even fewer are equipped to develop high-tech educational media modules. Though most teachers are experts at operating in the present classroom environment, it takes technically trained writers to generate the kind of formal manuscript which would lead to the development of effective self-paced, individualized media modules."
Describing and drawing on his work with the U.S. Air Force in the last century developing training modules for pilots flying new planes, Ussery says that business, industry, and government agencies are already using individualized, self-paced materials and methods very successfully.
A few institutions of higher education are using these techniques in varying degrees. In a few places, this dynamic approach to learning has filtered down into primary, elementary and secondary schools. Evidence of successful results is overwhelming for those units incorporating proper design and implementation.
Ussery: "Needless to say, we cannot put this kind of burden of development upon teachers. Their job is to manage learning, motivate students and inspire the next generation. That's why we must assign module development to media professionals. Then, these same professionals would train teachers in effective utilization."
Ussery said that biliionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett -- to cite just two who are funding education -- could fund the radical reform needed in public education, where the learning abilities of each student are factored into the learning process, rather than continuing to use a "one-size fits all" educational philosophy that has been used for almost four centuries without essential change.
When I finished Ussery's slim manifesto of uber-radical educational reform, I asked him if his ideas could be put into place using the structures of existing charter and magnet schools. His e-mailed reply:
"I don't believe it would be appropriate for Charter schools. Magnet schools might adapt to the system, but they cater to students with special talents. My idea is to build the system from the bottom up, and involves drastic changes in strategy. Generally, the steps would be:
* Collect many ideas regarding what students should be able TO DO in order to graduate from secondary school.
* From these, select the most often mentioned, best supported ideas, and base our curriculum upon these.
* Develop these DO/s into Mager-like objectives [Dr. Robert F. Mager, referred to constantly in Ussery's book, is an author and world-renowned expert on training and human performance improvement issues. He is credited with revolutionizing the performance improvement industry with his groundbreaking work. One of Dr. Mager's most significant contributions to the performance improvement field is his work on the Criterion-Referenced Instruction (CRI) training methodology. Developed by Dr. Mager in conjunction with Peter Pipe, CRI is used to develop training guaranteed to work and has become the standard for excellence in training and performance improvement.]
* Contract with media producers to develop media focusing upon the selected elements of the new criteria. These can be film, video, audio, booklets, "theater," (add your ideas here.) Offer them to anyone that wants them ... for a fee, of course.
* Offer these "Modules" to the pilot schools and teach them how to use them."
Dr. Ussery's ideas make so much sense that I fear the educational establishment -- which includes vested interests like textbook publishers and teacher unions -- will do everything it can to sabotage the implementation of his program. From what I see, Ussery's ideas are sound and are worth trying. His book is available at online sources such as Amazon.com and Powell's Books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
M.R. Ussery taught elementary school, secondary school, and adult education classes. He has written more than a hundred scripts for info and training films. He served as writer, director and producer of most of these films, and received more than a dozen top national awards for their excellence. Ussery earned his doctorate (Ed D) in Educational Technology.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
BOOK REVIEW: 'Public Schools Are Archaic' Proposes Radical Changes in Education Infrastructure to Allow Students to Learn at Their Own Speed
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Among the definitions of "archaic" in my dictionaries are the following: "primitive, belonging to an ancient time, obsolete."
All of the above are apt descriptions of today's public schools as described in M.R. Ussery's "Public Schools Are Archaic" (Outskirts Press, Inc., Denver, CO, edited by S. R. Pargman, 70 pages, $11.95).
Ussery, who lives in Washington state, has an Ed.D (doctorate in education) and says our public schools haven't changed in essentials since the Boston Latin School opened in Boston, MA in 1635. "Each year the system procreates itself as a carbon copy of what it did the year before," he writes. 21st Century public schools, he writes, need "deep educational reform."
Things are bassackwards in today's public schools, he says: "In a typical public school classroom TIME is CONSTANT, and LEARNING is VARIABLE. Time allotted to learning a set body of information is one semester or term. Unfortunately it turns out that LEARNING is the VARIABLE because no two students digest the same amount of information at the same speed. Teachers spend a constant amount of pouring knowledge into student receptacles (brains). Students retain variable amounts of learning."
The aim, he writes, is to make learning the constant and time as the variable.
In today's school environment, Ussery says, "very few teachers have the time, knowledge or technical skills they'd need to produce individual systems of learning. Even fewer are equipped to develop high-tech educational media modules. Though most teachers are experts at operating in the present classroom environment, it takes technically trained writers to generate the kind of formal manuscript which would lead to the development of effective self-paced, individualized media modules."
Describing and drawing on his work with the U.S. Air Force in the last century developing training modules for pilots flying new planes, Ussery says that business, industry, and government agencies are already using individualized, self-paced materials and methods very successfully.
A few institutions of higher education are using these techniques in varying degrees. In a few places, this dynamic approach to learning has filtered down into primary, elementary and secondary schools. Evidence of successful results is overwhelming for those units incorporating proper design and implementation.
Ussery: "Needless to say, we cannot put this kind of burden of development upon teachers. Their job is to manage learning, motivate students and inspire the next generation. That's why we must assign module development to media professionals. Then, these same professionals would train teachers in effective utilization."
Ussery said that biliionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett -- to cite just two who are funding education -- could fund the radical reform needed in public education, where the learning abilities of each student are factored into the learning process, rather than continuing to use a "one-size fits all" educational philosophy that has been used for almost four centuries without essential change.
When I finished Ussery's slim manifesto of uber-radical educational reform, I asked him if his ideas could be put into place using the structures of existing charter and magnet schools. His e-mailed reply:
"I don't believe it would be appropriate for Charter schools. Magnet schools might adapt to the system, but they cater to students with special talents. My idea is to build the system from the bottom up, and involves drastic changes in strategy. Generally, the steps would be:
* Collect many ideas regarding what students should be able TO DO in order to graduate from secondary school.
* From these, select the most often mentioned, best supported ideas, and base our curriculum upon these.
* Develop these DO/s into Mager-like objectives [Dr. Robert F. Mager, referred to constantly in Ussery's book, is an author and world-renowned expert on training and human performance improvement issues. He is credited with revolutionizing the performance improvement industry with his groundbreaking work. One of Dr. Mager's most significant contributions to the performance improvement field is his work on the Criterion-Referenced Instruction (CRI) training methodology. Developed by Dr. Mager in conjunction with Peter Pipe, CRI is used to develop training guaranteed to work and has become the standard for excellence in training and performance improvement.]
* Contract with media producers to develop media focusing upon the selected elements of the new criteria. These can be film, video, audio, booklets, "theater," (add your ideas here.) Offer them to anyone that wants them ... for a fee, of course.
* Offer these "Modules" to the pilot schools and teach them how to use them."
Dr. Ussery's ideas make so much sense that I fear the educational establishment -- which includes vested interests like textbook publishers and teacher unions -- will do everything it can to sabotage the implementation of his program. From what I see, Ussery's ideas are sound and are worth trying. His book is available at online sources such as Amazon.com and Powell's Books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
M.R. Ussery taught elementary school, secondary school, and adult education classes. He has written more than a hundred scripts for info and training films. He served as writer, director and producer of most of these films, and received more than a dozen top national awards for their excellence. Ussery earned his doctorate (Ed D) in Educational Technology.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
