Michele's Response to "Thin (Curriculum) is In"
March 27, 2006 01:34 PM
Sam Dillon's NYT piece has certainly lit up the blogosphere--and most bloggers, particularly the teacher bloggers, agree that NCLB has narrowed the curriculum and that this is a bad thing. Over at The Education Wonks, the post on the Times article received 15 lively comments, which, in the edublogosphere, is A LOT. Ms. Frizzle's post on the article got 10 comments, and Jenny D and NYC Educator got 7 comments each. (In case you can't tell, I have "comment envy.")
Other bloggers weighing in include: Assorted Stuff, Instructivist, Ms. Cornelius, and Schools Matter. The Education Wonks offer a real-life perspective that, while only anecdotal, seems to represent the Extreme Makeover version of NCLB: "In our own junior high school here in California's "Imperial" Valley, we've eliminated Art, and home economics programs, have reduced drama program to only one class, (which will be gone next year) and closed our shop."
Comments
No more comment envy.
and most bloggers, particularly the teacher bloggers, agree that NCLB has narrowed the curriculum and that this is a bad thing.
This is a false dilemma. NCLB doesn't require schools to narrow the curriculum, it just requires them to teach effectively. Since most schools don't know how to, they're flailing around trying to do anything they can think of even if there is no evidence to support what they're doing. Narrowing the curriculum to this extreme is just such an unproven theory.
Posted by: KDeRosa | March 28, 2006 05:18 PM