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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=633373900-05052009>"<FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3>eg.
I would see direct instruction as a must for autistic children but don't see
that it follows as a general model for all education
"</FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3><SPAN
class=633373900-05052009></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=633373900-05052009>The problem is that at least 20% of our kids in the US
qualify as either special ed or learning disabled in some form. So you
would be leaving out about 20% of the population (especially when teaching
reading and math).</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=633373900-05052009></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=633373900-05052009>Math can be improved greatly through Direct
Instruction. If you have not taught Connecting Math Concepts and other
non-DI curriculum, I would like to know why you would say such a thing. DI
would make most, if not all kids LIKE math at the early levels (Kindergarten -
8th grade). It makes them succeed because it is mastery based. If
you want to see brilliant curriculum development, you should look at SRA DISTAR
I & II, Connecting Math Concepts (A-F) and Essentials for
Algebra. </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=633373900-05052009></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=633373900-05052009>-Kathy</SPAN></FONT></DIV><BR>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> iaep-bounces@lists.sugarlabs.org
[mailto:iaep-bounces@lists.sugarlabs.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Bill
Kerr<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, May 04, 2009 5:21 PM<BR><B>To:</B> Walter
Bender<BR><B>Cc:</B> iaep; Sugar-dev Devel;
community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> [IAEP] versus,
not<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 7:43 AM, Walter Bender <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A
href="mailto:walter.bender@gmail.com">walter.bender@gmail.com</A>></SPAN>
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">===Sugar
Digest===<BR><BR>I encourage you to join two threads on the Education List
this week:<BR><A
href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-April/005382.html"
target=_blank>http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-April/005382.html</A>,
which<BR>has boiled down to an instruction vs construction debate; and<BR><A
href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-April/005342.html"
target=_blank>http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-April/005342.html</A>,
which<BR>has boiled down to a debate of catering to local culture vs
the<BR>Enlightenment. I encourage you to join these discussions.</BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>Agree that these are important discussions <BR><BR>Need to
be careful about the use of the versus depiction of these discussions IMO, this
tempting shorthand can create the wrong impression<BR><BR>eg. I would see direct
instruction as a must for autistic children but don't see that it follows as a
general model for all education (special needs are special) or that we should
even think it is possible to have a correct general model. I don't think there
is one and good teachers swap between multiple models all the time.<BR><BR>no
one on this list has argued overtly against "the enlightenment" or that
local culture ought not to be taken into account, eg. Ties said "think
practical", the response was of the nature that our context demands we do <a
certain course of action><BR><BR>however, I do think the roll back of
enlightenment principles is not well understood (<A
href="http://learningevolves.wikispaces.com/nonUniversals">http://learningevolves.wikispaces.com/nonUniversals</A>)
and that a better understanding might persuade more people of the need to
keep searching and struggling for different ways to go against some of the
tide of local culture - there is a recent interesting comment thread on mark
guzdial's blog which is worth reading from this point of view <A
href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK3F4TMBURELZZK">http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK3F4TMBURELZZK</A>
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