Education Views

Another dirty little education secret is revealed (Oct. 22): Education professors likely are a main cause of the decline in academic learning and student behavior standards in schools. The Public Agenda poll results illustrate forcefully the negative effect in these regards of my colleagues’ beliefs. Most of us believe that developing students’ social graces in school is inconsequential. On the other hand, we contend that students becoming “lifelong” learners is paramount.

The misjudgments we make here are readily apparent. Research makes clear that the former goal significantly promotes learning. As for the latter, no one has ever made a study of what actually creates lifelong learning, for the obvious reasons.

For a moment (gulp!) I thought the findings of the poll totally devastated us. We do at least save some face in our defense of the use of electronic calculators in math lessons. Used properly, i.e., as a means to verify mental computations, calculators do speed up students’ acquisition of math facts.

PATRICK GROFF

Professor Emeritus

College of Education

San Diego State University