senate testimony on national commission on teacher education act

8/21/2019 Senate Testimony on National Commission on Teacher Education Act

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June 14, 984

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Mr.

Samuel Blumenfeld

6 Rosec1air

Street

Boston, Massachusetts

02125

Dear

Mr.

Blumenfeld:

Thank you

very

much for

testifying

on June 7 at the hearing on Senate

Joint

Resolution

138,

the

National

COmmission on Teacher Education

Act.

Your

testimony

was

excellent and

certainly supported

the need for a

COmmission

such

as

the one

I

have proposed.

I regret that

a

conflict with

another committee

hearing made

t necessary for me

to pass

over same of the

questions

I would have liked

to

ask,

but the important points

were made.

I

appreciate your

taking

time away fram your busy

schedule to came to

Washington, and hope we will be successful in our efforts.

Again, thank you for your support.

EZ/ek/md



Tes t imony by

Samuel

L. Blumenfe ld given

before

the Senate

Subcommit tee on Educat ion ,

Arts

and Humanit ies

on June 7,

1984 regard ing S.J .

Res.

138.

About

a

year

and

a

h a l f

ago

an American

c o l l e g i a t e

debat ing

team

toured

the

Sovie t

Union fo r two weeks.

During

one debate , a Sovie t

man

in

the audience asked the Americans a very embarrass ing ques t ion .

He sa id :

Recen t ly I came across some s t a t i s t i c s which shocked me. Your

j ou rna l ,

U.S.

News and World Report , wrote t h a t 23

mi l l i o n

Americans,

t h a t

i s to say one out of every f ive

Americans ,

does not know

how

to

read and wri t e

wel l

enough to cope with the demands of

everyday

l i f e .

What

can

you

say

in

regards to

t h i s ?

Can t r e a l l y be t h a t t h i s i s

p o s s i b l e

in such a developed count ry as the

U.S.A.?

The

American

a t

the podium,

who spoke

f l u en t

Russian,

was

a t a

lo s s to p rov ide an

answer .

He made a

lame

joke and passed on the the

nex t

s u b j ec t .

I n t e r e s t i n g l y

enough, the Sov ie t Union

d o es n ' t

have a read ing

prmblem.

Any ch i ld who a t t en d s a Soviet school l e a r n s to

read .

But

m i l l i o n s

of

c h i l d r e n

in

American

schools become read ing

d isab led ,

and

many

g rad u a te

as fu n c t i o n a l i l l i t e r a t e s . Why Is t poss ib le t ha t

something i s

wrong

with the way we

t each

c h i l d r e n to

read?

ow

do they t each read ing

in

the Soviet Union? They

use the

a n a l y t i c / sy n t h e t i c method - - a method commonly

known

as

i n t en s iv e

phon

That

was the

method

used

in

the e a r l y 1930s when I went to schoo l in

New York Ci ty .

In

those

days t he re was no read ing problem.

But l a t e r

in

the

1930s,

a new

method

o f

t each ing

was

in t roduced

in to

the schools ca l l ed

look-say , the whole-word method. I t

was

base

on the

p ecu l i a r

i d ea tha t you can t each ch i ld r en

to

read Engl i sh as



Blumenfeld Test imony - 2

i f

it were Chinese. The r e s u l t has been an academic

d i s a s t e r

of such

propor t ions

hhat

it w i l l t ake gene ra t ions before i t s ill e f f e c t s are

erad ica ted

from

our

soc ie ty ,

i f ever .

In

1955,

Rudolf Flesch

exposed

the teaching-methods problemsin a

h i s t o r i c book e n t i t l e d hy Johnny

Can t

Read. In it

he

wrote: The

t eaching

of read ing a l l o v e r

the United S t a t e s , and

in

a l l

the

t ex tboo

i s

t o t a l l y wrong and f l i e s in the face of a l l log ic ' and common

sense .

What

was

the reac t ion of the

educa tors

to

a l l

of t h i s? They

denounced

Flesch,

crea ted a

powerful

profes s iona l o rgan iza t ion

to

coun ter

h i s

in f luence , and cont inued to promote

t h e i r methods

in

the

schools

o f

America.

And

of course

the s i t ua t i on

cont inued to

ge t wors

In 1965

Congress

passed the Elementary and

Secondary

Educat inn

Act,

supposedly

to

cure

the reading problem

and o ther ills But

in

f a

it made mat te r s

worse ,

fo r whi le the

educa tors

got

$42 b i l l i o n fo r

T i t l e One between 1965

and 1984,

the

t eaching

methods were not changed

Meanwhile,

the

SATs began t h e i r nose-dive ,

f a l l i ng

4 po in t s between

1966 and

1980.

The

f a i l u re of Ti t l e

One did

not

go

e n t i r e l y unnot iced .

In 1969

a

blue - r ibbon

Committee

on

Reading was formed to s tudy the l i t e r a c y

problem.

In

i t s

repor t

of 1975

the committee

had

t h i s to

say about

Ti t l e

One:

I t i s not cyn ica l

to

sugges t t h a t the ch ie f

be ne f i c i a r i e s

of the Elementary

and

Secondary Educat ion

Act

(EAEA) have been

memhers

of school systems

- - both profess iona l

and parapro fes s ion

fo r whom new

jobs

were c rea ted .

Seven yeans

and

as many b i l l i o n

do l l a r s

l a t e r , the ch i ld ren of the

poor

have not

been compensate

as

c l e a r ly

as

the employees of the

school

systems

through

t h i s

inves tment .



Blumenfeld Testimony - 3

The

Committee came

to the conc lus ion

t h a t

the l i t e r a c y problem co

only be

so lved

by bypass ing t he e x i s t i ng educa t ion macros t ruc tu re .

What the Committee was t e l l i n g

us , in

e f f e c t , i s t h a t the

gre a t e s t

obs tac le to

l i t e r a c y

in

America i s

our

own

educa t ion

es tab l i shment .

The

l e g i s l a t i o n before you

c a l l s

fo r

a f u l l and

complete

i n v e s t i g

t i o n of t e aehe r

t r a in ing

in the United

S ta t e s

by

a commission made up

of non-educa to rs :

t h a t

i s , paren t s , whose

ch i ld r en

are the vic t ims of

educa t iona l malprac t ice , r e p re se n t a t i v e s o f

business

and indus t ry who

must

employ the

func t iona l i l l i t e r a t e ,

and

school

board

members who

must govern

the publ i c schools for t h e i r communi t ies .

I t

i s obvious

t h a t today ' s

organized t eacher s cannot be

t r u s t e d

to

monitor

t h e i r own

performance .

They have too high a ves ted i n t e r e s

in i n s t i t u t i o n a l i z e d

malprac t ice . I t

j u s t i f i e s the

enormous f edera l

investment

in publ ic educa t ion .

In Ju ly

1980,

David Broder

in te rv iewed Terry

Herndon,

execut ive

d i r e c to r

of

the

NEA, and

asked

him why

so littl was sa id a t the

NE

conven t ion

about educa t iona l qua l i t y . Herndon s response was

qu i te

as ton i sh ing . He sa id : We don ' t have the answers .

Hopeful ly , the proposed commission w i l l

f ind

the

answer

fo r Mr.

Herndon.

I f

the

government

f inds

it

important to pro tec t

Americans

from

to

waste ,

consumer f raud,

and the poss ib le harm of

c i ga re t t e

smoking, it

ought

to become equa l ly concerned with pro tec t ing Americap

ch i ld ren

fr

the devas ta t ing b l i g h t of func t iona l

i l l i t e r a c y .

Therefore I

hope

t ha

the proposed

commission

w i l l

be

es tab l i shed as a f i r s t s tep in

prov id ing t h a t p ro t e c t i o n .

Thank you.



BOUT THE UTHOR

S MUEL

L.

BLUMENFELD has

w r i t t e n

s ix books

on educa t ion

inc luding

The

New

I l l i t e r a t e s

How

to Tutor

How

to

Sta r t Your

Own

P r iv a t e

School nd

Why

You Need O n e I s Publ ic Educat ion

Necessary?

and

Alpa-Phonics . He

i s Massachuse t t s

c h i r m n ~ o f the

Reading

Reform Foundat ion. His

a r t i c l e s

have appeared in Esqui re Reason

American Educat ion V i ta l

Speeches

Educat ion

Diges t

American

Legion Magazine

and

othe r pub l i ca t ions . Mr. Blumenfeld has t augh t

in

both

publ i c

and

p r i v a t e

schools

and i s

a

member

of

the

board

of d i r e c to r s of Heights Academy South Boston Massachuse t t s .

senate testimony on national commission on teacher education act

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