Virtual Teaching & Learning! Are Parents Seeing the Real Process of Education? Reflections from Two Virtual Teachers. Is it Time for America to Bolt the Desks Back Down and Start Lecturing More?

The Best Paragraph I've Read: "Since we are on Zoom for at least five hours a day... I am able to listen to the class. The teacher treats the class like they are middle school–aged kids. She is very strict in correcting what I see as normal 6-year-old behavior. " "We’re three weeks into school, and my daughter (who loves school and does not typically complain) is miserable and bored in her English language arts learning block. The teacher clearly hasn’t divided kids up into groups yet, and the kids are all going through shared lessons together that definitely seem a grade level or even two below what my daughter is used to. " "My son is getting is in trouble. He gets very bored and frustrated and is then scolded by the teacher for not watching the screen. He is listening, but he will color or read a book when he gets bored. I don’t think he should be called out for it because he’s not disrupting anyone else by doing it, but she’s insistent. Do I make him stare at the screen?" These comments come from an advice column on Slate.com.  The column is called Care and Feeding.  It is written by Matthew Dicks, Katie Holbrook, Cassy Sarnell, and Amy Scott.   https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/10/teacher-too-strict-zoom-parenting-advice.html Zac and Don discuss the merits of these parent complaints about virtual learning. Another Best Paragraph I've Read: The current fashion is for teachers to be a “guide on the side, instead of a sage on the stage,” he says, quoting the latest pedagogical slogan, which means that teachers aren’t supposed to lecture students but to “facilitate” learning by nudging students to follow their own curiosity. Everything Mr. Hirsch knows about how children learn tells him that’s the wrong approach. “If you want equity in education, as well as excellence, you have to have whole-class instruction,” in which a teacher directly communicates information using a prescribed sequential curriculum.   This paragraph comes from the Wall Street Journal.  The article is titled: "Bad Teaching Is Tearing America Apart."  The article is written by Naomi Schaefer Riley.  https://www.wsj.com/articles/bad-teaching-is-tearing-america-apart-11599857351 Zac and Don discuss the merit of having teachers lecture more and making students memorize more facts. Politico article on Patriotic Education https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/31/trump-patriotic-education-406521 Book: Amusing Ourselves to Death  https://www.amazon.com/Amusing-Ourselves-Death-Discourse-Business/dp/014303653X Book: In Search of Deeper Learning https://www.amazon.com/Search-Deeper-Learning-Remake-American/dp/0674988396 Better: A Surgeons Notes on Performance https://www.amazon.com/Better-Surgeons-Performance-Atul-Gawande/dp/0312427654