Sunday, January 24, 2010

Thought for the Day

The very fact that we teach children that certain words are "SAT Words" illustrates the fact that an enormous swath of folks involved in the education of American children have little to no understanding either of what constitutes an authentic approach to language or any concept of what it means to motivate children to want to learn.
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2 comments:

  1. David AndradeJanuary 26, 2010 at 8:06 AM

    Any thing that is listed as a "test word" or "test prep" just shows that we are not educating children, we are preparing them for testing which does nothing to prepare them for the future.

    It's sad when we spend so much time prepping for testing and then administering tests. All that time that could have been used to actually educate the children!

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  2. Dan WillinghamJanuary 26, 2010 at 9:32 AM

    When I was about 14 I had this conversation with my father.
    Me: Will this word be on the SAT?
    Dad: Could be.
    Me: Well, how many words are there that *might* be on the SAT. I mean, how many do I have to learn?
    Dad: 600,000
    Me: What?
    Dad: That's how many words there are in the English language
    Me: [petulant silence]
    Dad: Go read a book, son.

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