Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:46:56 -0600
From: Martin Holman <jmartinholman-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Great with Children #3


I don't wish to quibble--and I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the
thoughtful comments on teaching--but on the comparisons of the US and Japan,
I would like to comment.

Japanese children are tested early, but they are not shunted into a
non-academic programs after the third grade. The high school graduation rate
in Japan (which marks completion of a full 12 years of education that
includes math, Japanese, and science every year) is well over 90%. Over one
quarter of American students are not available for testing in their senior
year of high school because they have dropped out by then. (The US
graduation rate is only about 70+%.)

It is true that many European educational systems move students into non-
(or less) academic tracks--usually at a different school, at some point,
based on test scores. In the US we generally keep the kids all in the same
school, but we still offer non- or less academic tracks and the students end
up there by choice or by default. US high school students in academic tracks
may take calculus; students at the very same school who are not following an
academic path graduate with just arithmetic, without having ever even taken
algebra, depending on the state. We just tend keep them all in the same
school and we call them both "high school graduates" when (and if) they
finish.

Also, the percentage of the population that has a college degree is lower in
the US than Japan. And literacy rate of the adult population (the testing of
which does not involve measuring the apples and oranges of divergent
educational systems--just whether a grownup can read of not) is also lower
in the US.

I do not offer this as some sort of US put down. I am quite fond of my
country. And I don't know what the solutions are to the problems of
education in its many forms. I just speak as a member of a family of
teachers who try to do our best and as someone who has lived in Japan for
more than 10 of the last 31 years (and whose four children all attended
public schools in the US, Japan, and Canada), and--to keep this within the
realm of puptcrit--as one who spends time every summer in a Japanese city
where the public schools have very active and well-supported training
programs in traditional puppetry for their elementary and middle school
students (all of whom are attending their local neighborhood school without
regard to their tested academic ability).

Dagnabbit, I guess I just get really defensive about Japan. And I would do
the same for my home state of Kentucky--which is not usually considered a
paragon of educational attainment--so maybe it's best not to mess with me on
those things nearest my heart.  .  .  . heart   .  .  .  heart,  .  .   oh,
hear it is. (Brownie points to anyone who can identify the preceding
"cultural" reference. :)

Happy New Year. I am heading out to First Night festivities to see/hear a
Taiko drum performance--even as I experience mixed feelings of relief and
regret that we decided not perform there tonight ourselves.

Marty
_____________
Martin Holman
Bunraku Bay Puppet Theater
www.bunraku.org




On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 4:42 PM, Charles Taylor <cecetaylor-AT-verizon.net>wrote:

> Great with Children #3
>
> I thank you for all your kind remarks and if you can stand another long
> winded dissertation then read on. Other wise just skip it.
>
> I accept the guilt of expanding the subject of Great With Kids into the
> realm of education.  Primarily I became wound up because it had been
> mentioned that a teacher remarked =93how great a puppeteer=92s control was=94 .
> Also, I had a lot of thoughts regarding the subject of teachers
> incorporating puppetry in education and puppeteers performing in the
> educational setting.
>
> It seems we live in a time when our society has become extremely critical
> of everyone and everything.  I am speaking of a time including the last
> twenty years and certainly before and not necessarily caused by our recent
> economic downturn.
>
> So much negative remarks are made about so many things, one would think our
> society was to be greatly pitied. (So as you don=92t misunderstand me,  I am
> not speaking about remarks made on puptcrit.)
>
> As a society, we forget to count our blessings.  There is so much to be
> grateful for.  To live in this century with the wonderful technology. To
> have the average life span around seventy five when it was only forty seven
> in 1909.  So much has really improved.  Many  people don=92t realize what
> fantastic improvements have been made in education.
>
> Believe it or not, Americans are the highest educated people in the world.
> Despite what pundits and politicians are constantly telling us, we have the
> highest rate of well educated students  in the world.
>
> This misunderstanding comes from comparing =93apples to oranges=94.  Often
> Japan and Germany have their test scores compared to ours. But it is not
> explained in those comparisons that in those societies third graders are
> tested. Those that don=92t pass muster are channeled into non academic areas
> where they are never tested again.  Their test scores DO NOT reflect their
> total society as ours does.
>
> We, on the other hand, attempt to educate ALL students to the best of their
> abilities in spite of  language, racial, gender or academic differences. Our
> test scores reflect ALL of our students, high and low achievers.   Still we
> lead the world in general education, high school, and university level
> graduates. These are highly educated and productive people.
>
> The rigors of education are much harder today then they were thirty, forty,
> fifty even one hundred years ago.  People have a tendency to romanticize
> their good old days.  But it really wasn=92t the way we remember our
> childhood.  Our parents struggled more, there were less demands on teachers
> and education was a sink or swim system.
>
> All that said, it is sad to say that not all teachers behave professionally
> or have empathy for their charges. But I have seen other professions equally
> lacking in empathy.  I=92ve known doctors that did not live up to MY
> EXPECTATIONS.  And so,  even the profession of puppetry has had it=92s bad
> eggs!  But that is focussing on the negative people. There are fewer of them
> than we imagine.
>
> I discovered long ago that most children really are delightful.  I=92ve had
> students that were vexing and yet there was something likable about them. It
> finally occurred to me that  each human soul is unique and responds
> differently from every other.  Some souls are in great need of soothing.
> Misbehavior is a symptom  that cries out for help.
>
> I found music, art and especially puppetry as an interdisciplinary subject
> worked miracles.  What a shame that our society constantly clammers for the
> restructuring of public education.  What they are really saying is that
> education was better back in the good old days.  These are disgruntled
> people with an axe to grind that are unaware of the vast changes that have
> and are taking place in education.
>
> Was there a time before bad teachers left an indelible mark on our
> memories?   Plato describe how difficult children were unlike his time of
> growing up. He complained about  =93what=92s the matter with kids today?=94  We,
> each,  probably have had our share of unpleasant teachers but there were
> also great and inspiring ones if we were receptive.
>
>
> Mary Horsley mentioned that she was the only one doing puppetry.  I assume
> she meant in her school or perhaps district.   I too felt that way.  I
> taught puppetry to my students and to other teachers in teacher workshops.
> But no one else in my school ever took up the gauntlet.  They thought it too
> much work or couldn=92t see how it brought joy to school life for the
> students. Perhaps they couldn=92t see the academic benefits.
>
> Today the pressure is on teachers to increase test scores.  Math, including
> algebra, is being taught in kindergarten as is reading and writing. Math
> test given during and at the end of the year are pushing teachers in
> kindergarten to have students do adding, subtracting, carrying and
> borrowing.  That use to be first and second grade work.
> My kindergartners for the last fifteen years were writing on a level that
> use to be a second and third grade level.  It has become a science to teach
> writing.
>
> What has happened to the arts in public schools is to dwindle away the time
> committed to them. Instead we have so many minutes per day required to teach
> not only reading, writing, arithmetic, science, history but also vocabulary
> called Language of Instruction. It has become very technical.
>
> Teachers are scrambling to keep up with new methods each year. Before
> anything is mastered, out with the old and in with the new is a constant.
> Gone are the days of diagraming sentences but that has been replaced with
> many other techniques.  A student and teacher=92s day is divided into segments
> of ten and twenty minutes that is dictated and scripted.
>
> One reason why puppeteers are finding less and less work in school
> assemblies is because of the pressure on teachers to achieve higher and
> higher test scores. Less money is allocated to assemblies, especially those
> emphasizing the arts.
>
> Oh, less I forget to mention, ALL these standardized test are based on a
> bell curve. So no matter how hard ALL teachers work and students learn,
> fifty percent of the schools will ALWAYS fall below the half way mark. It
> has been said that the best thing the test indicate are the zip codes where
> the children live.  And if everyone or too many students get  a question
> correct, that is thrown out of the test and replaced with something else,
> usually something that is NOT in the curriculum to be taught.
>
> It is all political and so . . .
>
> There are fewer champions on school boards wanting to protect the arts.  In
> their eyes puppetry has no educational value.  It is seen as FLUFF.  A
> superintendent of Instruction and I locked horns many times over this
> subject.  She flatly told me and many other kindergarten teachers that SHE
> didn=92t want to see pumpkins or turkeys on the display boards in October and
> November.   Everything was to be academic. There was to be no FLUFF and no
> FUN!  Many teachers I knew unhappily complied and gave up.  The general
> attitude was =93You better not be caught playing with puppets!=94
>
> Déj=E0 vu, The same thing happened in the early nineteen eighties when
> phonics were thrown out for Whole Language!  We were told by principals that
> we better not be caught teaching phonics.  Some of us went underground and
> still taught phonics in conjunction to Whole Language. It took a couple of
> decades for phonics to be revived.
> By then many teachers were unfamiliar with the process and had to refer to
> a separate book for referral to work it into their lessons.
>
> And as you read in the papers regarding teachers receiving higher pay for
> higher test scores there will be less collaboration and sharing amongst good
> teachers.  The competitiveness to earn a living will out way the desire to
> share.
>
> Thankfully there will always be good teachers that go that extra mile, nay
> ten miles or more.  And I have faith that there will be those that
> incorporate puppetry into their curriculum and continue to encourage
> principals, P.T.A.s and school boards to bring in puppeteers to perform.
> Make no mistake, it=92s going to be a long climb up hill.
>
> Charles Taylor
>
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