Why is it that every school meeting I attend leaves me with the feeling that I am swimming in jello? Each new school year, we gather for the first staff meeting and I realize anew that I have heard it all before. We receive old information recycled into new shapes and flavors. What is being presented as a new reading plan is really a plan that was used 20 years ago...repackaged and renamed. Districts reinvent the wheel for math education, as well. Math is math and has been for thousands of years. I don't care if one uses manipulatives or pencil and paper...math basics need to be understood before a student can advance. If a student cannot multiply, it does not matter what the color of the manipulatives are.
What irritates me is that new ideas are presented many times because a publishing company has made a deal with a district. There are many dollars at stake. There are lots of ideas to repackage and sell. A little honesty goes a long way with teachers. It would be astonishing to hear a superintendent state that a certain company wishes to sell a lot of books this year and that the district has agreed to make that happen. I have never heard that. I have also never been a huge fan of jello. Swimming in it is even less desirable.
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