Top Ten List of Myths to Bust in 2009

Bill Gaskins from the Lowcountry blog Blogging on the Bay  tagged me for a meme started by Paul C at Quoteflections on the topic: Life is One Big Top Ten (2008), an outgrowth of Time's ultimate Top Ten Everything of 2008.  I have listed, in my opinion, the top ten myths in education, in no particular order. (There are plenty more so add them in the comment section.)  Let's bust these myths in 2009!

Top Ten Myths in Education

• Grouping students by age into grades for twelve years at 180 days per year is a reasonable and successful way to organize schools.
• Getting A's is the point of school.
• Filtering all the "bad stuff" from children while they are online in school promotes Internet safety and media literacy.
• Paying teachers based on students' test scores, will motivate them to work harder and be better teachers.
• Homework teaches  independence and good work habits, "reinforces" what has been taught, and helps students to become more successful learners.
• High stakes testing provides an accurate measurement of "achievement". 
• Interactive whiteboards  are a school district's  best investment of funds to move classrooms out of the Industrial Age model.
• When the money follows the child, all children will benefit--particularly the ones living in small, rural, poor school districts.
• Its all the parent's fault.  No wait, its all the teacher's fault.  No wait it's all the policy makers fault. Oh wait it must be society's fault.
• Politicians, corporate executives, ex military brass, and others not in the classroom all know better than those in the classrooms how to "fix" education. Besides, anyone can teach, right?

Comments

[Bill Gaskins]

Shirley,

Thanks for sharing these myths about education. We have so much to learn and do with public education in this country. Maybe we are moving to a platform where real change can begin to happen.

Bill

[Smart Board]

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[Samantha Mullner]

Thanks for sharing. There is a ton of learning and teaching to do out there, and this is helping a lot! I am an education major at Drexel University and have recently started a blog of my own:
http://educationbysamantha.blogspot.com/

[school_dubl]

Interesting site, always a new topic .. good luck in the new 2011. Happy New Year!

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