I'm told that Dalton is preparing a letter for the Wall Street Journal in response to my article. It's hard to imagine what they have to add on top of the response they sent our to their own community, but expect it to be carefully crafted by their consultants.
In the meantime, the comment section below the Journal piece makes for some great reading, some of it quite funny, some of it highly incisive. Here's a sample:
"The French Revolution is being delivered electronically, and the guillotine is Twitter."
"My demand: the headmaster, Mr. Best, should change his surname. I am oppressed because it speaks of exclusion!"
"You know your society has reached peak bourgeoise decadence when its ruling class will pay top dollar to learn how to hate themselves."
"It won't be long until there's a Secretary of Diversity and Inclusion in Biden's cabinet."
(No joke, that one.)
Lot of great writers out there.
"My demand: the Headmaster Mr. Best should change his surname. I am oppressed because it speaks of exclusion!"
Do you have anything better to do than repost self-validating comments from your own article?
ReplyDeleteFor a "yale adjunct", this is pretty weak..
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the world would look like if people like yourself devoted all of this sad and angry energy to positive things. Think what you want about the list of demands, but I respect the act of a group of people saying "this is what I want change to look like"— in bullet points for that matter.
ReplyDeleteHeck, write and offer up your own curriculums if you really think you know what education "should" look like today— all I've read from you is complaining and finger-pointing to no end and frankly, it's just pathetic and dumb. "Put up or shut up" as they say.
How is this post complaining?? I don't see any carping, nor do I feel "sad and angry energy" (except from your comment). I just read an enlightening, useful report on what is overtaking our schools in this day and age and it is frightening. I don't know if "Anonymous" at 10:45 is the same "Anonymous" at 11:16 - probably is, if not perhaps you two should get together for coffee and discuss YOUR anger issues. You both sound like typically nasty liberals who won't actually address the issues being brought up and prefer ad hominem attacks without any substance or actual points. We are presumably all parents which means we all have skin in this game and we are very interested in what we think education should or more importantly should not look like. We are the ones writing the checks, so yeah, we have a view and we might want to point fingers. What is wrong with that? These people work for us! This is an important piece by Mr. Johnston because it isn't just Dalton - this woke mindset is polluting both public and private education and needs to be called out. Glad you have so much respect for these insane demands; if you are not a current Dalton parent perhaps you should apply since you are completely on board with this BS.
DeleteWhiny anonymous would rather attack someone exposing hypocrisy than deal with the fact that the so-called elites just plain suck at being even competent and logical human beings.
ReplyDeleteWhich member of the Dalton faculty is hiding behind that Anonymous, I wonder?
Anonymous, any comments on the actual substance of the controversy?
ReplyDeleteMr. Johnston, Keep on keeping on. Many people are concerned about the irrational and sudden turn many of our institutions are taking, but lack the courage or the incentive to speak out.
ReplyDeleteFastest way to kill Dalton, and with it all the jobs of these "teachers" who signed this garbage, is to implement their blatantly color-based racist demands. A huge amount of Dalton's student body (and donating parents) are at Dalton for a chance to get into a top college. If Dalton accedes to these lunatic demands and eliminates advanced courses because black kids can't get the same grades in them (i.e. a pre-determined result based solely on skin color and not on merit), that is NOT going to help get students into top colleges and students will go to other schools which still offer sanity along with advanced courses for smart kids who need challenging coursework. And what parent is going to finance Dalton through donations when half of their money goes to the abysmal public school system that DeBlasio is doing his absolute best to gut by killing off any good school?
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed your WSJ OpEd. I am now following you by email, and will link to your posts on my blog at RushBabe49.com.
ReplyDeleteHeck, write and offer up your own curriculums if you really think you know what education "should" look like today— all I've read from you is complaining and finger-pointing to no end and frankly, it's just pathetic and dumb. "Put up or shut up" as they say.
ReplyDeleteSchools like Dalton are ill-equipped to offer a comprehensive program. Special education, remedial education, and vocational-technical education are not their book. They offer academics and the arts. They're also ill-equipped to educate the bottom 2/3 of the performance distribution.
1. Have school hours run from shortly before 8:30 until 3:30 pm. Have three recess periods - one at mid-morning, one at mid-day, and one mid-afternoon. Divide the day into eight class periods of 45 minutes each.
2. Have K-2 students under the supervision of a general classroom teacher and an aide for six of the eight periods. The seventh period would be devoted to gym class and general recreation. The eighth period would be devoted to arts-and-crafts for most, music instruction for a minority.
3. The K-2 general instruction time would be divided between instruction, problem sets, and down-time activities. The ratio of instruction to down-time would increase each year. The instructional time would be evenly divided between reading-and-writing and arithmetic. You'd have a dedicated teacher assisted by an aide and a floater teacher who would spell her for one period a day.
3. Grade 3-6 would feature the same, but with progressive reductions in down-time to the point where it was by grade 6 limited to one period a day of quiet time. The floater teacher would be a specialist in history and allied subjects. The floater teacher would devote four lectures a week to history, one to geography. For one half-semester a year, geography would be replaced by civics. The focus of these lectures would be entirely on North America and would progress year to year as a sketch with increasing detail.
4. The music faculty would consist of a core of regular salaried employees and a mess of contractors. They'd work assiduously throughout the day, conducting tutorials and group instruction with a maximum of six persons. Berths in music class would be rationed according to auditions and lot. Most students would be in arts-and-crafts.
5. At grade 7, the students are released from the supervision of a single teacher and travel from classroom to classroom to lectures by subject specialists. One period a day each is devoted to English literature, a foreign language, mathematics and related, history and related, and natural science. A sixth period is allocated to a jumble of classes: music lessons, art classes, skills classes which vary from student to student. A seventh period is devoted to gym. There is one blank period. Students are debarred from loitering in hallways and are remanded to supervised study halls during their blank periods if they misbehave. At this time, after school sports, after school music and theatre, and after school skills classes are introduced. These can substitute for your 6th and 7th period classes during the day.
ReplyDelete6. Students in grades 7-12 are sorted into three tracks for mathematics instruction and at least two tracks for foreign language instruction.
7. There will be expanded options for the arts in grades 7-12. In music, these will include band and (sex segregated) choral groups, so berths in music will be less astringently rationed. These group activities will generally practice after school. In art, a shop option will supplement art classes.
8. Mathematics instruction will consist of four lectures a week of arithmetic, algebra, pre-calculus, or calculus and one lecture a week of geometry. For one half-semester a year, geometry will be replaced by computer programming taught by a staff member or contractor. Again, mathematics is tracked and their are no electives. The fast track takes the AP exam in their senior year.
9. History and related will consist of four lectures a week of history and one of geography. In the 11th grade, the fourth lecture will consist of civics. As a rule, you'll have one teacher for each during the period, and receive a composite grade. The 7th grade has an introductory semester of world history and and introductory semester on the ancient Mediterranean. The 8th grade has and introductory semester on North America elaborated to include regional and local history. The 9th grade has a year of world history. The 10th grade has a year of European history which incorporates European colonization. The 11th grade has a year of American history, more elaborate than before and with less of an emphasis on formal political history. In the 12th grade, you can chose from a set of AP options.
10. You'll be compelled to pick one from the school's menu of foreign languages on your arrival and stick with it until you leave. Students transferring in will sometimes be placed with older or younger students depending on their background. You'll have the option to double up on your language classes, but will need permissions from the department head, the dean, &c. The fast track students take the AP exam in their senior year.
ReplyDelete11. For natural sciences, the 7th grade will have a semester of biology and a semester of geosciences. The 8th grade will have a semester of chemistry and a semester of physics. Older students will be in multigrade classes on a particular subject. There will be a recommended order. Available will be a year's worth of geology, chemistry, physics, and biology. You can double up on your science with permission. Students in the 11th and 12th grade who have completed the standard course in a subject and have permissions can take the AP version if their is one. Your precise menu of courses over those four years is your choice with permissions.
12. The English department will have for each grade level a matrix of forms (epics,verse plays, short story, novels, and creative nonfiction) and periods (ancient, medieval, early modern (1517-1789), 19th c (1789-1914), and contemporary (1914-50 years ago). Works will be assigned to slots on each matrix. A teacher in a given year will be expected to cover a majority of the periods and a majority of the forms, but has a free had to select works from the matrix at his discretion. Selections for the 12th grade English class must take account of the AP exam.
13. A one semester exit course in music appreciation and a one semester exit course in art appreciation will be required and can be taken in the 11th or 12th grade. A menu of skills classes will be offered for your 6th period class. One (driver education) is optional and offered after school. The others are required half-semester and full semester classes. These include the following: computer and application use, library use, expository writing (taught by a professional editor on contract), bookkeeping and financial planning, and (sex segregated) home ec. Time not allocated to the foregoing is allocated to music and art instruction (which can be remitted by after-school activities).
14. It should be remarked in all of this that the portals for a discussion of race relations would be in history classes and in some literature classes. In regard to the latter, it should be an odd and occasional thing. In regard to the former, it's a feature of European colonization and American history, but not properly an organizing principle. Two organizing principles should be present in American history: legal-formal institutions and the figures who built and operated them, and the history of settlement incorporated land use and resource use (which should be the principal concern of the geography classes).
15. As soon as students can read, report cards are issued every semester. Grades with terse commentary. Median grade a C. The library fines are appended.
ReplyDelete16. Certain infractions merit detention and suspension. Enough infractions, you get put on social probation. Fail your probation and you're expelled. Somethings mean expedited expulsion: criminal activity on campus (notably drug charges), lewd acts on campus, and causing mass disruptions.
17. School assemblies are occasionals and as brief as possible. Two or three times a year, if that.
18. The school has large walk-in refrigerators with individual berths tied to your locker number. They're opened by the maintenance staff at the beginning of the day and at mid-day for lunch. There is an indoor food court an outdoor pavilion, and an outdoor patio. There's a staff lounge closed to students and to the headmaster and provosts. There is no cafeteria. Students bring their own lunches.
19. The headmaster, provosts, and deans of students each have a short teaching schedule.
20. The dress code for faculty and staff is strictly enforced.
21. Each year, the parents of current and prospective students may apply for a remission of charges, offering summary pages from their tax returns as documentation. A family's income and family size is plugged into a formula which generates a result which is the school's conception of what it is reasonable for them to pay out of pocket. The remission of charges to be hypothetically allocated the applicant is the difference between the sticker-price tuition and what it's deemed reasonable to pay.
22. Screening examinations are administered to each applicant. Each examination is scored and the applicant is assigned a percentile ranking from among those who have been admitted to the school at a given grade level in the previous dozen years.
23. A sum to be allocated to remitted charges is calculated for each fiscal year. Applicants for remitted charges are ranked according to their percentile scores at the time they were most recently screened for admission. Beginning with the highest rank and continuing, each student is allocated the remission the formula indicates and a running balance is calculated. When your running balance equals the sum you've budgeted, you've defined the set of students who will receive a remission of charges. Some students who received a remission in one year will lose it in the next, because of changes in the composition of the pool so applying or because of an insufficient revenue stream.
24. Applicants not seeking a remission of charges will, if they receive a minimum score on the screening examination, be placed in a queue and admitted when a berth is available. If they're waiting longer than four years, they may be asked to sit for a new screening examination.
ReplyDelete25. All secondary teachers will be expected to have an academic degree in their subjects and to have taken s short menu of teaching methods courses. The history teachers at the primary level will be expected to have as much, as will the art, music, and gym teachers. If an applicant lacks the methods courses, he can be placed on stipend for a semester and take them post-hire. Ordinary classroom teachers (K-6) will be expected to submit college board scores and take screening examinations and take a longer menu of methods courses pre-hire or post-hire. An education degree is never required and only methods courses approved by the department head can suffice. Neophyte teachers will be appended to an experienced teacher for at least a semester, and paid on the cheap.
26. The schools admissions standards are mechanistic. The school accepts the distribution of students among communal groups that those standards generate.
27. Subject knowledge, references, and indicia of general intelligence dictate faculty hiring. Interviews are to see if the applicant is a passable fit for the job given his personal qualities.
28. The personnel officers at the school are concerned with compliance with the law, with the mechanics of posting positions, with employee records, and with contracting and counseling for fringes and the EAP program. They don't hire or fire people, run inane training programs, or otherwise make pests of themselves.
29. Teachers work on one year contracts.
30. The school has an office manager who has among her duties the maintenance of mail pigeonholes, supply cabinets, photocopiers &c. for student clubs. She also keeps a register of clubs and available advisers from among the faculty and staff. Now and again, she'll maintain bank accounts for clubs. The clubs are voluntary associations of students which can be formed for any purpose not illegal, tortious, or licentious. There is no student government.
ReplyDeleteHey Art Deco - I'm the Anonymous who wrote the comment above about the effect of eliminating advanced classes and how a lot of kids are at places like Dalton because of its college placement. Thanks for your detailed education plan - sounds a lot like the very good public elementary and middle school education I grew up on in the 60s and 70s and the private high end high school I attended. We've completely lost our way now, changing "education" into indoctrination into politically correct ideology. Nobody learns the basics of history, geography, sciences, grammar, spelling, and literature now. Wherever you teach or run a school, I'm signing my grandkids up when they're ready. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWell done, Art!
ReplyDelete