Word: mayers
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Loud huzzahs have rung out for Mayer's presentation of real-life episodes straight from the classroom. But there are barely enough of them to keep the casual reader awake as he plows through acres of badly-presented theory and travelogue. (Mayer went to England, France, Denmark, Finland, and Norway, as well as places in the U.S.--which just broadened an already unmanageable scope...
These little vignettes are usually interesting and informative, but, like the rest of the book, they suffer from bad writing. It is quite hard to believe that every teacher Mayer ran into was either "tall," "pretty," or "birdlike," or some combination of the three. And his choice of words is appalling, often obscuring his point. When Mayer begins a description of what he considers a good teacher by calling her "a big, bouncy, bony, blond girl, under thirty, who talks at a lightning pace," he should realize that he is prejudicing the reader...
Furthermore, in a book which is largely concerned with what in wrong with American education, far too many of the vignettes are about good teachers and bland situations. I'm sure Mayer must have found better illustrations of education malpractice: I never had any trouble doing so when I was in the Ohio public school system. Once my eighth grade teacher tried to convince the class that Negoes were to be avoided. When I objected, he said. "Look at it this way. How would you like to swim in the same pool with one of them?" This was in Ohio...
...book contains a lot of questionable theory. Mayer has a good point when he says that IQ tests and classroom techniques are biased in favor of middle-class children, but he goes 'way too far. Among Mayer's "middle-class values" are order, cleanliness, neatness, and democracy--a somewhat narrow view...
...Mayer has a fetish about progressive education, and at times seems to equate "progressive" with "good." He is 100 per cent for the "project" approach to teaching, and is foursquare against the use of drill. To him, the "direct" method of language instruction is the only way, and he decries any attempt to explain rules or reasons. He sees little use for clerical mathematics or fully worked-out answers: "Most arithmetical problems that come up in life (or in science, for that matter) require only approximate answers...