From: valerie boes
Submit: Post Comments
VisitDate: 00/00/96
Date: 21 Oct 1996
Time: 15:25:27
Remote Name: 128.114.143.239
I just finished readion the article writen by cole. In this article he speakes of the bottom-up and top-down process of teaching. He gives a definition for bottom-up but not one for top-down. Is it correct for me to assume that the top-down process of teaching is when you start at a higher level of problem solving then the rote skills should fall into place? I really enjoyed this article. In Cole's conclusion he states "it is impossible to view the current educational problems of the united states without coming to the conclusion that what the situation demands is a "cultural reolution" involvoing broad masses of our population in basic literacy activities." He goes on to say that "it is clearly impossible to accomplish such a massive change simply by pouring money into the schools to reduce classroom sizes or by raising alaries to make the demands of teaching attractive to talented young people, or any of the other "war on ignorance" plans that are presently under consideration." These quotes really demonstrate how i feel. There is so much variation in the school systems in the U.s that is it hard to bring about change. so many times you hear of a really interesting program a school in one state has started, you get excited, then you hear that the program was cut off because of one reason or another. If their was a "solid foundation" in school's across the u.s. i am sure that schools would have a chance to surrvive when trying out new programs like the collaborative approach we saw in Eugenes presentation last wed.