Here are the ten most overused, overinflated, and utterly exhausted phrases in modern education, each a monument to the art of saying nothing with maximum verbosity.
Is it any wonder that home schooling is continuing to grow? What we need in the future are people like Michael who can translate BS and insipid platitudes into English
No joke, my medical school went to a flipped classroom model semi-recently where students are expected to “generate their own questions about medicine”. How on Earth is a person supposed to generate questions without a solid foundation??
Memory may be playing a trick on me. As a graduate of a Seattle Public Highschool, decades ago, I recall our principal proudly assuring parents, “our students shall graduate knowing how to read the headlines in newspapers, read the phone book, and fill out a job application.” I don’t think he was joking. The fact is his teachers succeeded. I can do all three. Sadly, finding a newspaper is difficult. Finding a phone book, I think I saw one once in an antique shop.
When I read ‘sage on the stage’ I cheered to myself! I tell my student teachers this all the time as this sit next to a smart-board while kids gaze, mouth breathing, at the screen barely speaking. This is the best thing I’ve read in a long time!
"Behold the lamentable fate of the classroom teacher, that once-noble steward of knowledge, now relegated to "guide on the side." So eloquently put and just what I've tried to describe as one of my peeves with today's "education system". Soul-less and dehumanised. Thank you for your clarity of the huge issues were facing as a race.
Thank you for writing this. This glossary will help me make more sense of what I experienced the last half or more of my military career. I say this recognizing that I considered myself less academically prepared than the generation that led and trained me.
Time to reform our hideous Schools of Teacher Education with their obscene focus on pedagogical process at the expense of knowledge content.
Don't forgot to go on a spirit quest to Discover Your Why.
Great list but what about trauma informed and culturally responsive?
Is it any wonder that home schooling is continuing to grow? What we need in the future are people like Michael who can translate BS and insipid platitudes into English
No joke, my medical school went to a flipped classroom model semi-recently where students are expected to “generate their own questions about medicine”. How on Earth is a person supposed to generate questions without a solid foundation??
Kindred spirit.
Absolutely!
Memory may be playing a trick on me. As a graduate of a Seattle Public Highschool, decades ago, I recall our principal proudly assuring parents, “our students shall graduate knowing how to read the headlines in newspapers, read the phone book, and fill out a job application.” I don’t think he was joking. The fact is his teachers succeeded. I can do all three. Sadly, finding a newspaper is difficult. Finding a phone book, I think I saw one once in an antique shop.
Oh my god.
When I read ‘sage on the stage’ I cheered to myself! I tell my student teachers this all the time as this sit next to a smart-board while kids gaze, mouth breathing, at the screen barely speaking. This is the best thing I’ve read in a long time!
"Behold the lamentable fate of the classroom teacher, that once-noble steward of knowledge, now relegated to "guide on the side." So eloquently put and just what I've tried to describe as one of my peeves with today's "education system". Soul-less and dehumanised. Thank you for your clarity of the huge issues were facing as a race.
"as if the ability to navigate Google Docs were an intellectual triumph on par with mastering Euclidean geometry." I'm enjoying this essay!
Thank you, Helio. By the way, I love your website on screen use! Well done!
I just returned and read this a second time. Superb.
Thank you for writing this. This glossary will help me make more sense of what I experienced the last half or more of my military career. I say this recognizing that I considered myself less academically prepared than the generation that led and trained me.
THREE OLDER, CLASSIC BOOKS ON TEACHING AND EDUCATION:
These classics might be of interest to anyone here. All are free to read in their entirety at archive.org.
-- "The Art of Teaching," by Gilbert Highet (approximately 250 pages)
-- "Teacher in America," by Jacques Barzun (approximately 260 pages)
-- "Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning," by Jacques Barzun (approx. 215 pages)
Tables of contents and direct archive.org links are here:
https://theunexpectedworld.substack.com/p/great-books-on-teaching
Very triggering. '21st century skills' - shudder. The advent of AI is supercharging the old zombie clichés.
Some here too: https://www.juliangirdham.com/blog/in-the-real-world