Let's Fix Education / by Bruce Deitrick Price
Savvy, practical insights on where our Education Establishment went wrong and how most schools can be improved.LET'S FIX EDUCATION explains the many dysfunctional theories and methods operating within our schools. This podcast is intended for parents, teachers, and community leaders who want education reform.
Each week, LET'S FIX EDUCATION examines another problem in our public schools, such as: Constructivism. Learning styles. Sight-words. No memorization. Cooperative learning. Prior knowledge. Reform math. The dilution of knowledge. Common Core. Project-based learning. Student-centered, etc. In fact, there are DOZENS of counterproductive learning and teaching theories, all made worse by ideological motives.
Bio: Bruce Deitrick Price is a novelist, artist, and education reformer. He has analyzed the problems in education for more than 30 years. Price is the author of "Saving K-12: What happened to our public schools? How do we fix them?" (190 pages) His main education site is Improve-Education.org. For more information about book and author, visit Lit4u.com. Newest novels are "Frankie" (about a harmless robot) and "The Boy Who Saves The World" (about a boy who saves the world).
"Bruce Price’s SAVING K-12 is a MUST read! It is precise, concise and powerful. Action is required…for the sake of our children, our grandchildren and the future of the American Republic!” Robert W. Sweet, Jr., long-time President of The National Right to Read Foundation
Let's Fix Education / by Bruce Deitrick Price
Episode 104: What teachers can learn about teaching from Reaction Videos (Wed., June 28, 2023)
Reaction videos are a fairly new phenomenon. This article explains what they are and why they're wonderful.
Basically, any video content can be the stimulus for somebody's new video content. Now the audience gets two separate contents but merged.
Below are some of my favorites. These are rock 'n' roll because I am a child of rock 'n' roll. But ignore the specifics. Consider the richness of the viewer's experience
Think about how you could react to some content, Then you could play your reaction video for the class, and react to that. A lot of information is conveyed quickly..
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Five of my favorite reaction videos illustrate points made in this podcast.
1) Juilliard trained opera singer collides with AC/DC. Their most famous song is Thunderstruck, surely one of the most energetic rock 'n' roll songs in history.
2) Vocal coach ravished by guitar god.
3) Nine-year-old girl in beastmode.
4) and 5) Same musician but two very different reactions.
Urban meets country.
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Fairy Voice Mother meets mountain man
Please look at these things and many more so you get a full sense of what’s out there. It's vast. It’s fun. It's highly educational.
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The best way to understand problems in public schools
is to read this book: Saving K-12
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Word-Wise Education
757-455-5020
Bruce Deitrick Price
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New novel: Art and Beauty.
Crime fiction. Set in Manhattan.
Dangerously well written.
Published by Web-E-Books.com /// Editor says: “Bruce Deitrick Price puts
a new spin on the all-American, sexy, fast-talking detective story by creating
a truly fresh crime-fighter personality and placing his original P.I. character, Jon Dak, among movers and shakers in the NYC art and fashion world.”
< Enjoy Chapter 1. ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY >
< Enjoy Chapter 2. MISS BABBAGE >
Let's Fix Education explains to Americans why their schools are so bad. The people in charge prefer mediocrity because they are socialists of one kind or another. If people work together to promote real education, we'll have it.
LET'S FIX EDUCATION by Bruce Deitrick Price
Episode 104 (Wed., June 28, 2023)
What teachers can learn about teaching from Reaction Videos
Ladies and gentlemen...
An indignant student sent a tirade to Quora: “…teacher never showed emotion. She opened her folder and read in a monotone for an hour. It was excruciating. I've never been so bored in my life. I learned nothing and got dumber.”
The student is perhaps hyperbolic but there is a real problem discussed here. Many teachers are not as interesting or entertaining as they need to be to compete in the Internet world.
The student’s anger should be viewed as a warning. Try harder; be more ingenious. The reaction videos on YouTube show new ways to maximize learning.
Many people don't know what YouTube is so let me say it has almost 1,000,000,000 videos at this point. These are little movies free to watch (although you might have to watch some advertising too. SKIP ADS button is sometimes at lower right.)
First, there were videos and then came a new development: REACTION VIDEOS.
Let’s say you have a video of Elvis Presley performing in the 1950s. It's very good and instructive.
Now let's suppose another fan, one with musical training or some personal involvement with Elvis, makes a video of himself watching and reacting to Elvis. This person may have different emotions and different knowledge. In 10 minutes you learn things about Elvis you didn't know before. Just as important, you relive all the things you like about Elvis.
The secret ingredient here is emotion. The reactor needs passion. If the reactor loves the artist or hates the artist, either way it's going to be exciting for the viewer.
If the reactor underestimates the skill of the artist, and says something like, "I never saw this coming,” that's entertaining and enjoyable.
This sequence is common in reactions to the young Angelina Jordan. When she made her famous version of "I put a spell on you," she was nine. Many people start off wondering what the heck a little girl can do. I suspect I've watched more than 25 different videos of this one song. Still fun.
A K-12 class is like a million other classes. There is a textbook which drones on from page to page. There are common premises and assumptions that invariably communicate boredom and sameness to the students. But each reaction video starts from the personality of the reactor and is its own world.
Another river of information is presented in the comments that people leave on each video.
It used to be that one stream of information was enough but now it's possible to enjoy many streams of information one after the other. It's somewhat like going from 2D to 3D, or from black-and-white to color.
This podcast is short so you can watch some of the recommended videos. Once you look at a video, YouTube will bring similar videos to your computer.
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POSTSCRIPT: two of the reaction videos recommended here are about Chris Stapleton and Tennessee Whiskey. He also did the national anthem at the Super Bowl this year, and got a tremendous response. For a couple days I was looking at dozens of Stapleton videos. People were saying it's the best ever. People were very emotional. I formed a theory that explains the unusually passionate response. It's the subject of Episode 86, which is the most popular video in this podcast, by a wide margin.