The thing about research is that it doesn’t prove anything, at least not in the social sciences. There is no single research that conclusively proves anything once and for all about reading instruction. Research may support a hypothesis. It may provide evidence for something, show something, indicate something, or demonstrate something, but in the social sciences, research doesn’t prove things. The results may indicate, implicate, or illustrate, but educational research doesn’t prove things.

SoR advocates often claim that there is a “proven science” of reading. But when working with variable human beings interacting in variable social situations there are simply too many variables to say that something proves something else conclusively. Instead, research provides evidence for things. A lot of research provides strong evidence. A little research provides weak evidence. There are evidence-based practices (see Chapter *) but there is no “proven science” of reading. But even saying something is evidence-based says nothing about the quality of the evidence or the validity of the evidence.

Words are always encountered in the context of a sign, product, or sentence. In the same way, to be understood, data must be understood and evaluated in the context in which it was collected. Reading research can only be fully understood in the context of a wider array of research studies within a theoretical perspective. And theories must be understood in the context of a paradigm. The Science of Reading movement must be understood in the greater social and political context and in the context of past educational reform movements (NCLB).

There are conditions that tip the scale in favor of some groups and restrict or disadvantage others. There are communities, that seem to get the economic opportunities, good schools, good teachers, health care, good nutrition, housing opportunities, small class sizes, community libraries, well-stocked school and classroom libraries … Go to a 3rd-grade classroom in a poor, inner-city school, or poor rural district. Now go to a 3rd grade classroom in a weather suburb. It's like going to a different planet.

Not everybody has the same opportunities. A person is privileged because of their environment and station in life. Communities that are predominantly white seem to have disproportionately more of these privileges and more opportunities. Communities that are predominantly black seem to have more restrictions and fewer opportunities.

Teachers exist in a school context which exists within a systems context. A system is an interacting and interdependent set of elements working together to form a unified whole. To fully understand the obstacles teachers face and why some are leaving education, one must first understand the system in which they exist. Arthur Combs (1999) described two common types of systems used in organizations: top-down closed systems and person-centered open systems. This podcast describes the top-down closed system.

I am writing a book about teaching writing. This book is based on the premise that human beings have an innate desire to communicate with other human beings. They naturally want the ideas to leak out of their head. Humans have an inherent inclination to express themselves and to share their ideas and experiences with other humans. Good writing instruction is built upon this natural inclination. Ineffective (bad) writing instruction stymies this natural impulse. And if students have been stymied for years, it may take a bit of work to un-stymie them. This podcast addresses the “un-stymie-i-zation” process.

So why should educators be concerned about educational research? What relevance does it have to our everyday practice?

Educational research is used to create the theories upon which we design educational policies and practices. Theories help to organize relevant empirical facts (empirical means they can be observed or measured) in order to create a context for understanding phenomena. Sometimes people try to dismiss an idea or practice with which they do not agree by saying it is just a bunch of theory, meaning I guess that the theoretical realm is somehow far removed from the practical realm, perhaps even having a different set of laws that govern it. But this would be a misunderstanding of what a theory is.

A theory is a way to explain a set of facts. Put another way, if reality were a dot-to-dot picture, a theory would be a way to connect a set of data dots (see Figure 1.2.) However, varying theories connect different data dots in different ways resulting in a wide variety of pictures and practices. Thus, varying theoretical perspectives, while based on a set of empirical data, can often advocate different practices or practical notions. An example would be behavioral learning theory and cognitive learning theory, both of which are based on solid empirical evidence.

• Educational research is used to create the theories that are used to design educational policies and practices.

• A theory is a way of explaining a set of facts.

• A hypothesis is an untested conjecture.

• Research-based theory can be used to justify practices or policies.

• Educational research helps teachers and school administrators to make good decisions.

Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939) is considered to be one of the pioneers of modern psychology. His theory of personality states that (a) the human psyche (personality) has more than one aspect (see below) and (b) the unconscious mind can be highly influential in directing human behavior. His contribution to the field of psychology was in describing how impulses and ideas contained in the unconscious were sometimes blocked from becoming conscious (Tuckett, 2019). These blocks contributed to the suffering of his patients.

It is recognized that his ideas related to the impact of childhood sexuality on human development and personality are uncomfortable for many. These are not widely adopted today. But many of his other ideas still contribute to our understanding of the human entity. Thus, any book about understanding human beings should include some of Freud’s ideas.

There are three things to keep in mind when evaluating Freud’s theory of personality. First, theories are not meant to be permanent. Theories, by their very nature, are temporary structures used to explain a set of facts and to understand phenomena. As the facts change, the theories continue to evolve until they eventually become obsolete and are replaced by new theories. Second, Freud’s thinking kept evolving throughout his lifetime. If he were still alive today it is most likely that his thinking would be much different than it was in the early 1900s. And third, theories (like Freud’s) do not predict human behavior; they help us understand human behavior.

Like Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers was a humanistic psychologist who also described humans as naturally good and evolving entities. He pioneered a client-centered approach to psychotherapy that translated directly into a student-centered approach to teaching. This chapter describes some of his seminal ideas as they relate to human growth, teaching, and being a human being. As you listen to this podcoast you will notice that these ideas are interconnected such that the borders between teaching and psychology are often indistinguishable. This is as it should be. Rogers believed that teaching, psychotherapy, and being a fully functioning person all came from the same place

Self-actualization is the term used to describe the natural unfolding and realization of one’s full potential. Put another way, within every acorn there is a mighty oak tree. To actualize is to enable the taproot to sprout from the acorn and the seedling to come forth and begin to grow to be the oak tree. Self-actualization is when the acorn recognizes the oak tree within, embraces oak-tree-ness, and begins the journey toward being and becoming an oak tree. This podcast describes some of the conditions necessary to enable students to self-actualize.

At one time it was thought that smaller class sizes and additional adult resources found in a segregated special education classroom would enable teachers here to provide individualized instruction that would meet the special needs of each student. It was thought as well that this would lead to improved learning outcomes for these students. This is not the case. It turns out that educational outcomes are more often diminished rather than enhanced in segregated settings. This is because students in segregated special education settings frequently do not receive the same quality of education as students in a general education classroom. Also, the instruction here often is neither individualized nor appropriate.

This podcast further explores problems in Special Ed World. Addressed here: (a) the medical model used to understand "disabilities", (b) standardized instruction, (c) segregated instructional settings, and (d) systemic racism.

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was among the earliest pioneers in humanistic psychology (sometimes referred to as growth psychology or third wave psychology). This movement begin to emerge in the 1950’s in response to the idea that humans were merely creatures driven by their subconscious (Sigmund Freud and the psychoanalytic model), or were organisms conditioned to respond to internal and external stimuli (B.F. Skinner and the behaviorist model). Instead, Maslow (as well as Carl Rogers Erik Erikson and Maria Montessori) saw humans as having a natural impulse toward fullness, health, healing, and growth (Maslow, 1968). The three psychological concepts for which Maslow is most highly identified are: (a) hierarchical structure of motivation, (b) self-actualization, and (c) peak experiences. This podcast address his theory of motivation

I used to describe special education as a field – as in “the field of special education.” And indeed, it used to be a field. You can see this field when reading articles from the major special education academic journals in the 1990s and early 2000s. It was a field. Not a farmer’s field but a field in the wild. This kind of field is a beautiful place. It is an ecosystem, with birds, other animals, and a wide variety of plant life. And a field in the wild is not contained. It changes over time as new seeds, plant life, and animals interact with it. The edges of the field evolve and change over time.

. But special education is not a field anymore; rather, it has become a silo.

A silo is a container. It contains silage. Silage is a type of fodder given to cattle and sheep during the winter when grazing is not possible. It is made from grass, corn (maize) oats, hay, and other types of foliage that has been cut up into little parts. This vegetative matter is put in the large, vertical tube known as a silo, compressed to get all the oxygen out then allowed to ferment. The result is a form of pickled pasture matter that is all jumbled up and all looks the same when it comes out. Cows and sheep eat it without question

Recently, the Minnesota State Legislature passed the Read Act, sponsored by Democratic representative Heather Edelson. It’s a law based on the fad of the day; the shiny new thing called the “science of reading”. Ironically, this law is based on misconceptions and un-understandings related to both science and reading. This law states that I and other literacy professors in Minnesota must follow, with fidelity, the mandates put forth by state lawmakers. These are lawmakers who have never taught a kid to read, who have never read a research article related to reading instruction, and whose knowledge about reading instruction is reliant on the information given to them by radio journalists and podcasters (present company excepted).

As part of the Read Act, the Minnesota Department of Education is now forcing me, a literacy professor at Minnesota State University, to teach things to my students that a wide range of research has shown to be ineffective in helping young children to become literate (that is, to use reading and writing for real purposes). I am forced to teach the preservice teachers in my literacy methods courses at Minnesota State University to engage in educational malpractice in their future classrooms. The Minnesota Department of Education mandates that these future teachers learn strategies that will impede their future students’ ability to achieve their full literacy potential. I must promote the de-literalization of children by telling teachers to focus primarily on lower-level reading subskills instead of higher-level cognitive functions related to reading and comprehension. Worse, I must teach them how to suck all the joy out of reading.

:n our current educational system, standardized tests are used to assess the quality of the student-products as they move along the 13-year conveyor belt within the education factories commonly referred to as schools. Students whose test scores fall below a certain percentile ranking are thought to have a disability. Additional standardized tests are then given by standardized testing experts to confirm and diagnose the cause of the disability. Very much like a disease, a “special” standardized treatment is then prescribed for this disability.

These students are then sent off to Special Ed World. This is a purgatorial “special” place apart from the general education classroom where students are given the prescribed special treatment by special treatment experts. In the segregated setting of Special Ed World, the special treatment experts implement the special treatment with fidelity. However, one of the many problems with Special Ed World as currently configured is that once students become entangled in the special education machinery, they are lost forever. They rarely return.

This podcast examines three interconnecting elements related to reading instruction in Special Ed World: (a) data-resistant theoretical constructs, (b) paradigmatic parochialism regarding what is considered “scientifically-based” research, and (dd manipulative approaches to teaching.

Fast-Reading Freddy was a second-grade student. His father contacted me because, according to him, his son had reading problems. The scores on reading achievement tests were below grade level. His father indicated that he was going to get him tested for dyslexia. Knowing the devasting impact that such tests and labels can have, and the great amount of nothingness that such tests produce, I told his father I wanted to listen to Freddy read before any testing was done. This is the story of what I found.

The podcast examines the big, big picture related to reading instruction. Four big ideas are presented here:

1. A reading teacher’s number one job should be to help children fall in love with books.

2. Students need reading practice

3. Have good books available.

4. Stop the search for magical elixirs.

One cause of ineffective reading instruction is an un-understanding of how the brain creates meaning with print. The other is testing madness. The number monkeys have taken over education! If we can’t put a number to a thing, it is thought not to exist.

I have yet to come across a standardized test that taught a child to read. Despite all the colorful graphs and charts, I have yet to encounter a test that tells me exactly what I should do on Monday morning. They simply tell me how far away from average a kid is.

Eye movement research tells us much about reading and the reading process. This type of research looks at eye movement as people are engaged in authentic reading activities (reading passages vs. individual words). Eye movement research shows that our eyeballs do not move in a nice, straight, orderly line from left to right. Also, our eyeballs skip over 40% of the words while reading.

When students make a mistake or miscue during oral reading, our first impulse is to jump in and correct the mistake. We need to stop doing this. This podcast explains why. The first thing we do when students stop because they don't recognize a word is to tell them to "sound it out". We also need to stop doing this. This podcast explains why.

One cause of ineffective reading instruction is the lack of understanding related to the reading process. More specifically, inaccurate information about how the brain creates meaning with print. Old ideas get in the way of new understandings. Un-understandings also get in the way of new understandings.

The traditional view of the scientific process. The traditional view of the scientific process goes something like this. You get two groups. You measure them before the study begins. You do something to one group and you don’t do something to the other. You control everything else so that the two groups are as similar as possible. Then after a bit, you measure them to see if there are differences between the two groups. [slide]. If there are, you can say that the thing you did to the one group was the cause of the difference.

Many think of this as THEE scientific method. This is often called controlled experimental research (CER) or controlled experimental studies (CES). You control all the variables except for one (the treatment or independent variable) in order to find out if something was the cause of something else. However, one big idea I would hope you would take with you is this:

1. There is no such thing as THEE scientific method. Rather, there are methods of science. CER is only one of many methods of science. To insist that this is the only method of science that can be used to understand reading and reading instruction is to insist that we look at reading reality through a tube. Our view and thus our understanding are greatly impeded. Yet this is exactly what the US Department of Education and other groups have done. They have insisted that the only knowledge that counts is that which is derived through controlled experiment research (CER). In reading, they call this scientifically based reading research (SBRR). But this insular view demonstrates a limited understanding of educational research. It insists that we look at reading reality through a very narrow peephole. There’s a lot of data being missed. And how could anything be truly scientific if it chooses to ignore a wealth of very important data.

This is the first in a two-part series looking at grammar instruction. Learning about grammar doesn’t have to be boring and meaningless. This podcast starts by dispelling some myths, otherwise known as silly grammar ideas. It ends by describing the four elements of effective skills instruction: (a) input and modeling, (b) guided practice, (c) independent practice, and (d) review

So why should educators be concerned about educational research? What relevance does it have to our everyday practice? We have all heard the common litany: “It’s just a bunch of theory. You can make research say anything you want. Ivory tower researchers don’t know what it’s like in the trenches. It doesn’t work that way in the real world.” This podcast explains what a theory is, how research-based theories can be used to make good educational decisions, and six common approaches to decision-making in schools.

I could live with a science of reading if the SoR zealots applied the scientific principles they claim to worship and adore to all of reading reality.  That is, if the scientific principles that they insist be used to determine what is effective reading instruction were also used to establish cause and effect, I could live with the zealotry.   But, they abandon their cherished scientific ideals when identifying problems and evaluating solutions to problems.  Look at the reading laws passed by 32 state legislatures.  Look at the testimony by “experts”.  You will see the word “science” used a lot, but science if much different from ‘I-think-isms’, anecdotal evidence, and personal experiences.

This is an excerpt from my book: Johnson, A. (2016). 10 essential instructional elements for students with reading difficulties: A brain-friendly approach.

Phonemes are the smallest units of sound within spoken words. English has 41-44 phonemes. Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is one part of the whole literacy learning system. But not all children benefit from phonemic awareness activities. The rule of thumb is that phonemic awareness activities should generally be discontinued once children are reading comfortably at the 1st-grade level. Some students with severe reading difficulties in later grades benefit from having phonemic awareness activities that are part of their total reading program.

This is an excerpt from my book: Johnson, A. (2016). 10 essential instructional elements for students with reading difficulties: A brain-friendly approach. Corwin

The first podcast provides a sense of what effective literacy instruction might look like at the preschool and kindergarten (emergent) levels. The following podcast describes strategies for developing phonemic awareness.

A teacher’s prime directive is to help students learn or more accurately, to create the conditions whereby students are able to learn. So, what is learning? Learning is the process of acquiring new knowledge and skills. But simply having new knowledge and skills are of little value if they cannot be used. Thus, learning also involves the ability to use new knowledge and skills to solve problems or create products. However, learning also involves new insight. Thus, learning might also be said to include making new connections between pieces of knowledge or different experiences in order to bring about new understanding, new insight, or change.

All well and good, but what is the highest form of teaching?

The highest form of teaching is Teaching as transformation.

This view perceives teaching as creating conditions that have the potential to transform the learner on many different levels (cognitive, emotional, social, intuitive, creative, spiritual, and other). Transformational teach­ing invites both students and teachers to discover their full potential as learners, as members of society, and as human beings. The ultimate transformational goal is to become more nurturing human beings who are better able to perceive the interconnectedness of all human, plant, and animal life (Narve, 2001). Holistic education is an educational philosophy consistent with the transformative view (Miller, 1996). Learning is said to have occurred when these experiences elicit a transformation of consciousness that leads to a greater understanding of and care for self, others, and the environment. Academic achievement from this perspective is seen as discovering and developing your unique talents and capabilities to the fullest extent possible. Academic achievement also involves becoming aware of the multiple dimensions of self and expanding one’s consciousness.

It has been my experience that education is most effective when the prime directive is to do what Maria Montessori proposed in 1946, and that is to help each child discover and then release his or her full potential. The Indian philosopher, Krishnamurti proposed that education’s goal should be to free individuals from the illusion of one’s cultural conditioning so that they can think and value for themselves (Miller, 2001). Thomas Moore (1992), in The Seat of the Soul, recommends that schools strive to develop depth of feeling and imagination, instead of only focusing on knowledge and skills. I agree with each of these, and I would add that our schools should be vehicles for self-actualization. Self-actualization here is the state where one is able to accept and express one’s inner core and begin to actualize those capacities and potentialities found there

When we talk about critical race theory, our goal is not to win the argument. We’ve already done that. Our goal is change. And if change is not occurring, we must consider the causal factors. Now those who would use force to leverage change, simply think about where, how, and how much force to use. But that’s not really change. That’s compliance. We want change. Real change. Ideas cause change. Ideas ultimately cause real change. Ideas. Hence, we must consider the idea delivery system being used.

This podcast explores this question: Do you want to win the argument or do you want change? We've already won the argument, so let's focus on change. In doing so, we need to consider our idea-delivery system.

if you want to help students become better writers, you must teach them the process. The five-step writing process as described by Donald Graves (1983) has been around for a while. This podcast will expand on the brief outline of the five-step writing process, it will describe tips for teaching the 5-step writing process, and it will identify six types of writing that should be included in a writing curriculum.

Throughout my series of podcasts related to writing instruction you’ll encounter six reoccurring themes:

1. Everyone can write. Writing is creating meaning with print and sharing that meaning with others. Everyone can record or express an idea on paper (or computer). Young children may use more pictures and squiggly shapes than letters and words, but they are creating meaning with print and sharing their ideas.

2. Students need to be taught the writing process. The five-step writing process will be described in Chapter 1 and referenced through this book. Everyone can become better writers if they are taught the steps and follow the process. The process may look a bit different in first grade than it does in 12th grade, but there is a process, and it does produce better writers.

3. Students need opportunities to practice writing. You become a better tennis player by practicing. You become a better piano player by practicing. You become a writer by practicing. Like any skill, you need to do it a lot to get better at it. This means that teachers must provide ample opportunities to practice writing. Students should expect to write every day.

4. Students need to have authentic writing experiences. An inauthentic writing experience is when the teacher asks students to respond to an artificial writing prompt and the only response given is a grade, some edits, and a comment from the teacher. In contrast, an authentic writing experience is when students are recording, explaining, or describing their ideas for a real-life audience (often their peers). This makes their writing comes alive. It moves it from an abstract exercise to a real-life event. And when students are engaged in authentic writing experiences, you seldom have problems ‘motivating’ them to write. Again, humans have a natural inclination to communicate; to share their thoughts, experiences, perspectives, and emotions with others. When you tap into this natural inclination, writing instruction becomes effortless.

5. Students need responses. A response if much different from correction. A response is a reaction. Students need to see how their writing is playing in the heads of the reader. They need to know which parts work and which parts are a little fuzzy or could use some revising. They need responses from the teacher and their peers.

6. Every teacher can be an effective teacher of writing. There’s nothing magical or complicated about being and becoming a good teacher of writing. You simply need to understand the five-step writing process and have a few good strategies that you can adopt and adapt to fit your needs and teaching style. And that’s where I come in. Hence, this book.

• Students need their own writing topics. Students should be encouraged to express their thoughts and describe their experiences to the greatest extent possible. This is called authentic writing or authentic writing experiences. Not all the time, but much of the time. When I sit down to write a book or a journal article, nobody assigns me a topic. I get to write about what interests me. I get to research things about which I am curious. Research and writing seem effortless here. However, I’ve had experiences in which I’ve had to write a chapter, article, or report that I wasn’t really interested in writing. Writering is incredible difficult here. It seems as if I stare at my computer for hours and nothing comes out of my head.

• Students first need to write in order to learn how to write. Celebrate the idea in whatever form that idea takes. There are times and places to learn and become proficient in various writing forms and genre, including what Gloria Ladson-Billings (2017) refers to as the dominant academic language (DAL) or the culture of commerce and social advancement. However, learning and becoming proficient in one form will make it easier to learn and become proficient in another form.

• Students need to get real responses from real people. Sharing writing with others is what makes it come alive. She how people respond to your words gives you a sense of what is effective and what is not.

• Finally, keep the art in language arts. Again, art is not something beautiful; art is something beautifully expressed. Celebrate, in your writing instruction, the beauty of words.

Learning to write is a lot like learning to make raspberry jelly. You need to be shown the process, not just given a list of ingredients. Too often students are never taught the process used to create a finished written product. They are not shown the steps. This lack of instruction related to process is just as detrimental to jelly-making as it is to writing.

Dance has much to teach us about five areas of reading instruction:

1. Motivation. 

2. Practice. 

3. Dance dyslexia

4. Whole dancing.

5. Context. 

Whenever a new SoR reading law is passed, the SoR zealots gather a bunch of children together for a picture, and they’re told to smile.  And you get pictures of happy smiling children with happy parents all smiling and being happy.  Wonderful.  It’s a joy façade.

Behind the façade is an unwritten narrative.  These children were once unhappy and oppressed because of reading instruction.  But then a reading law was passed.  Now look at them.  Glory hallelujah, they’ve got SoR in their heart.  They’ve been saved by orthographic mapping.  Their lives are better because of decodable texts.  Now just look at how happy they are.  How can you possibly argue with happiness?  And why would you balanced-literacy devils make these happy children unhappy with your hell-based 3 cueing systems?

The test data didn't tell me the full story. Sally was a 1st grade girl with whom I was working last year during covid. I was doing online tutoring with kids. Before working with her, her parents sent me her test data. I read through them. There were fancy charts and colorful graphs that showed Sally’s scores on a whole array of meaningless reading subskill – They measured her distance from average. All this data really showed me was that Sally had trouble reading --- but we already knew this. Her parents knew this. Her teacher knew this. And Sally knew this. The numbers simply quantified what everybody already knew. And the testing made Sally feel more insecure about herself as a literate human being.

Five things cause ineffective reading instruction:

1. The myth of standardization.

2. Lack of understanding related to the reading process.

3. Teacher disempowerment.

4. Over-crowded classrooms.

5. Testing madness.

How is it possible that so many people believe that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election? How is it humanly possible? How is it possible that some still believe that getting vaccinated for COVID-19 is a bad thing? After all the information published, all the data available, how is it possible that there are people walking about who fervently believe such things? And I am not talking about just a few. Sadly, I am talking about a whole bunch of people.

This podcast examines the neurological basis of how it is that people can believe things that are so unbelievable.

This short podcast looks at language learning and the implications for reading instruction.

Language learning is a universal human function. People around the world, in different environments and with different abilities seem to acquire their primary language in essentially the same sequence and the same way. This tells us that humans are hard-wired to learn language in some form (Chomsky, 1968)

Four elements

There are four elements connected with language learning (Ormrod, Anderman, & Anderman, 2020):

• Semantics refers to the meaning. Children learn that certain sounds, symbols, or movements of a hand and facial gestures means something.

• Syntax refers to the rules for how the words, symbols, and movements are put together. For example, in human communication there is usually a thing word (noun) coupled with an action word (verb). Children learn that the types of words, the form of the word, and the order that they are used make a difference.

• Medium refers to the form the language takes. Children learn to produce certain sounds, symbols, or movements to communicate.

• Pragmatics is the context in which the communication takes place and the social rules around that communication. Children learn to communicate in different ways, in different contexts, with different people, and for different purposes.

Emotions can be better understood if viewed from an evolutionary perspective. Our current human emotions are a result of thousands of years of human evolution. They are part of our ever-evolving human brain. As stated above, they are a physiological response to some external stimuli that facilitated actions beneficial for the survival of the group or the individual. We have six basic emotions hardwired into our human brains: anger, fear, surprise, sadness (distress), happiness (joy), and disgust. Each of these served to enable the propagation of our species and the continued spreading of our genes in some fashion.

At their core, emotions are a physiological response to stimuli that enable humans to react to events of biological or individual significance. From an evolutionary perspective, these physiological responses promoted survival behavior of the individual or the group

This podcast is designed to help white people understand systemic racism, white guilt, shame, and the history of the United States of America. That's quite a lot for an 11-minute podcast -- but I think I pretty much cover it all.

This podcast is designed for white people. Full disclosure: I am a white man. It also describes just some of the basic elements of systemic racism. It also differentiates between the word "equality" and "equity".

Critical Race Theory has been much maligned, discounted, and discredited without fully understanding exactly what it is. It has been presented as a bad thing, a dangerous thing, a nefarious thing by conservative groups such as The American Experiment. Disinformation, misinformation, and distortion are used under the guise of patriotism and Christianity. What is presented as Critical Race Theory is not critical race theory at all. Groups like The American Experiment offer a distorted, cartoonish, and perverted view of Critical Race Theory. This short podcast describes what it is and what it is not.

There is only one emotion that is good for learning: happiness and all its derivations.  Joy is a derivation of happiness.  Joy is pleasurable.  Humans are rewarded by their emotions for doing things that bring them joy.  They tend to repeat these behaviors.  Fear keeps us from doing certain things.  Fear of failure.  Fear of humiliation.  Also, things that make us sad or unhappy keep us from doing certain things.  Being forced to sit in a chair and perform like a trained seal creates sadness, boredom, and frustration.

The SoR zealots fail to realize that we’re teaching children who just happen to be developing human beings, who happen also to be emotional and social beings existing in a sociocultural context.  We read and emote with the same brain.  It’s silly to think that one would not impact the other.  Positive emotions enhance learning, and negative emotions impede learning.  Take that to the bank, baby.  We’ve got plenty of research to support this.  So, we can say with some confidence that creating a positive emotional environment in which there is social interaction, safety, and joy is a research-based strategy. 

Reading programs need to be balanced (Cunningham & Allington, 2007te). This means that it’s is not all just one thing (like all phonics instruction, or all reading, or all writing, or all anything). Instead, there’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that. You may not have noticed, but children are not standardized products. Children learn differently, in different ways, and at different rates. Thus, in learning to read, some children need a little more of one thing while others need bit more of another thing. Trying to push all children through the same reading program will result in the slowed growth of some and the frustration of others. This practice is called teaching the program and not children. Effective teachers teach children. Factory workers teach the program. Whenever possible, strive to be a teacher, not a factory worker.

One of the ideas for getting more teachers of color into the classroom has been to look at fast-track alternative teacher preparation programs such as Teach for America. These kinds of programs are usually based on the spaghetti model: Throw enough spaghetti on the wall and some of it will stick. In other words - throw a bunch of low-paid, poorly prepared teachers into the classroom and some will eventually stick around, making it to a second year.

Let me ask you this: Would you go to a fast-track dentist? What about a dentist who was part of a Dentists for America program? Most would say no. We expect a certain level of training and expertise from those in whom we entrust with the care of our teeth. Why would we think it appropriate to expect anything less of those who we entrust with the care and education of our children?

Problem: Only 16% of the US teacher force are teachers of color. This is a problem.

On Saturday, May 1st, 2021 a group of teachers, teacher educators, administrators, and others from around the state of Minnesota and three other states met for conversation. The purpose was to address the problem related to the lack of teachers of color in our classrooms in Minnesota and around the country. Three questions were used to initiate this conversation:

1. What are the filters that keep students of color from entering teacher preparation programs?

2. What are the filters that keep students of color from completing teacher preparation programs?

3. What can we do?