* Tug that plant ! Make it grow !

The Farmer from Sung

You must work at [rightness] and never let it out of your mind. At the same time, while you must never let it out of your mind, you must not forcibly help it grow either. You must not be like the man from Sung. There was a man from Sung who pulled at his rice plants because he was worried about their failure to grow. Having done so, he went on his way home, not realizing what he had done.  "I am worn out today," said he to his family. "I have been helping the rice plants to grow." His son rushed out to take a look and there the plants were, all shrivelled up. There are few in the world who can resist the urge to help their rice plants grow. There are some who leave the plants unattended, thinking that nothing they can do will be of any use. They are the people who do not even bother to weed. There are others who help the plants grow. They are the people who pull at them. Not only do they fail to help them but they do the plants positive harm.[xlv]

* Sealing Our Children's Fate

 See: The Bill and Melinda Gradgrind Foundation

OP-ED COLUMNIST

China’s Winning Schools?

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: January 15, 2011

BEIJING

 . . . But this is the paradox: Chinese themselves are far less impressed by their school system. Almost every time I try to interview a Chinese about the system here, I hear grousing rather than praise. Many Chinese complain scathingly that their system kills independent thought and creativity, and they envy the American system for nurturing self-reliance — and for trying to make learning exciting and not just a chore.

In Xian, I visited Gaoxin Yizhong, perhaps the city’s best high school, and the students and teachers spoke wistfully of the American emphasis on clubs, arts and independent thought. “We need to encourage more creativity,” explained Hua Guohong, a chemistry teacher. “We should learn from American schools.”

One friend in Guangdong Province says he will send his children to the United States to study because the local schools are a “creativity-killer.” Another sent his son to an international school to escape what he likens to “programs for trained seals.” Private schools are sprouting everywhere, and many boast of a focus on creativity.

For my part, I think the self-criticisms are exactly right, but I also deeply admire the passion for education and the commitment to making the system better. And while William Butler Yeats was right that “education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire,” it’s also true that it’s easier to ignite a bonfire if there’s fuel in the bucket . . .

* Author of "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior" Nominated for BAM

Ms. Amy Chua, Yale Law School professor and author of Why Chinese Mothers are Superior, has been nominated by The Anti-Yale for this year's BAM Award by the Gradgrind Foundation.

The BAM Award (Bill and Melinda Award) is given annually by the Bill and Melinda Gradgrind Foundation to that individual or entity whose contribution to educational reform most fully dehumanizes students, teachers, and administrators while using terms such as "metric," "accountability," and "transparency."

Nate Zelinsky, a staff writer for the Yale Daily News,  was previously nominated for this year's BAM.

Last year's BAM Award went to Shanghai.

The Bill and Melinda Gradgrind Foundation is a missionary organization "dedicated to grinding teachers, students, and curricula into standardized perfection ... " 

_______________________

Note:

The Foundation takes its name from Thomas Gradgrind, the inspirational utilitarian teacher in Charles Dickens's Hard Times.

* Yale Daily News Staffer Nominated for Gradgrind BAM Award

Zelinsky BAM Nominee

The Anti-Yale has nominated Nate Zelinsky, staff writer for the Yale Daily News, for this year's BAM Award.

The BAM Award (Bill and Melinda Award) is given annually by the Bill and Melinda Gradgrind Foundation to that individual or entity whose contribution to educational reform most fully dehumanizes students, teachers, and administrators while using terms such as "metric," "accountability," and "transparency."

Last year's BAM Award went to Shanghai.

The Bill and Melinda Gradgrind Foundation is a missionary organization "dedicated to grinding teachers, students, and curricula into standardized perfection ... " 




_______________________
Note:
The Foundation takes its name from Thomas Gradgrind, the inspirational utilitarian teacher in Charles Dickens's Hard Times.

Gradgrind Foundation's BAM AWARD Goes to Shanghai

Gradgrind Foundation Announces  BAM 

(Bill and Melinda) AWARD 

SHANGHAI WINS BAM AWARD

"The Shanghai students performed well, experts say, for the same reason students from other parts of Asia — including South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong — do: Their education systems are steeped in discipline, rote learning and obsessive test preparation. Educators say this disciplined approach helps explain the announcement this month that 5,100 15-year-olds in Shanghai outperformed students from about 65 countries on an international standardized test that measured math, science and reading competency. . . 

The results were seen as another sign of China’s growing competitiveness. The United States rankings are a “wake-up call,” said Arne Duncan, the secretary of education . . .




American students came in between 15th and 31st place in the three categories. France and Britain also fared poorly. . .

But many educators say China’s strength in education is also a weakness. The nation’s education system is too test-oriented, schools here stifle creativity and parental pressures often deprive children of the joys of childhood, they say.

“These are two sides of the same coin: Chinese schools are very good at preparing their students for standardized tests,” Jiang Xueqin, a deputy principal”

 at Peking University High School in Beijing, wrote in an opinion article published in The Wall Street Journal shortly after the test results were announced. “For that reason, they fail to prepare them for higher education and the knowledge economy.”

In an interview, Mr. Jiang said Chinese schools emphasized testing too much, and produced students who lacked curiosity and the ability to think critically or independently.

“It creates very narrow-minded students,” he said. “But what China needs now is entrepreneurs and innovators . . . 

In many ways, the system is a reflection of China’s Confucianist past. Children are expected to honor and respect their parents and teachers."

* Public Enemy # 1 of the Gradgrind Foundation: Sir Ken Robinson

* The Wizard of IDS: The Gradgrind Philosophy

Measure! Quantify! Demonstrate! Produce! Verify! 

The word teacher and even the latin words magister / magistra  seem a bit old-fashioned to those of us at Bill and Melinda Gradgrind Foundation so we are suggesting a new descriptor for those whose classrooms we seek to transform.
Our proposal is that the word be changed from "teacher" to " Information Delivery System."  After all, that is the most accurate description of what we at Gradgrind believe teachers to be. Further, IDS has the advantage of not suggesting a human relationship, the idiosyncrasies of which (classroom management, encouragement, spontaneity,  HUMAN BEHAVIOR)  often interfere with the delivery of information and its efficient monitoring.
We know that some would claim a teacher's job is not to deliver information but to inspire (or as Yeats said, "Teaching is about catching fire").
We at Gradgrind acknowledge  that  the acronym for "Information Delivery System" (IDS) can also be used by the Yeatsians to mean  "Inspiration Delivery System"  but we at  Gradgrind will pretend we never heard of such an interpretation, and stick to our  'full pitcher / empty vessel' paradigm (see below).


We reject the notion of teaching as inspiration.


Teaching is quantifiable, as are the results of teaching.


 Inspiration is not quantifiable and is therefore irrelevant to Gradgrinds.


It is essential for us Gradgrinds to be able to measure, measure, measure every bit of information delivered and received by students.
Students (AKA "children") in our view are empty vessels into which the teacher pours (i.e. delivers) information.  At the end of this pouring, the amount students have received can be measured.  Leaks and spills are also measured, and the plugging of defective vessels is accomplished.  Similarly, training in pouring is administered to the pourers, until their techniques are flawless. (We at Gradgrind  FILM  the pouring techniques, and require pourers to watch the films regularly to master the perfect pouring technique.)

The results, we are sure, will be a quiet, harmonious classroom of empty vessels yearning to be effectively hooked up to an Information Delivery System for rapid, carefully monitored delivery of information, digit by digit, ounce by ounce, inch by inch.


Heil Gradgrind !