Comments on: The Proliferation of Kingdoms

By: Madeline

Madeline — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:00:52 +0000

Well, that was intense. I hear you, greenstrawberries. What you are doing is noble. I am a teacher, too, in a Montessori upper elementary classroom. I was actually checking out this site because I am planning a lesson on the Domain System. It was interesting to read the article from the parent, and then read reactions from others. I am psyched to teach the domains, but I am doing my research because it is complicated. And, I do have a say in what I teach; I have chosen to take this on. That is one of the benefits of Montessori teaching. I hope my kids at least take from this that science is always changing based on research and discovery.

By: greenstrawberries

greenstrawberries — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 11:16:40 +0000

Um, Sid, do you teach? Because most teachers really don’t appreciate those outside of the education field telling them what their job should or should not consist of. (Do engineers like it when regular outsiders tell them how to do their jobs??) Just because you once went to school does NOT make you an expert on what teachers should teach or not teach in their classrooms.
Sorry, that’s just a pet peeve of mine. But, regardless, most teachers have very little, if anything, to say with what they teach in the classroom. It comes in the form of lovely curriculum documents and standards and benchmarks and on and on. Teachers are told WHAT to teach, and for the most part left alone as to HOW to teach it. (that does vary somewhat between schools and districts/states) As a first grade teacher, I object to your statement that I teach FLUFF. (thanks for saying that I do nothing all day long; appreciate it!)
You come and try to teach 20 6 year olds how to read and then try making that statement again. Just because what we teach small children is simple facts, does not make our job simple, or fluffy. You can’t learn how to do higher level mathematics until you learn to add and subtract, and you can’t read complex biology papers until you learn how to sound out ‘cat.’
There is some redundancy in what we teach children, but a lot of that is due to the fact that it takes children some 300-3000 times of hearing something to actually learn it. (why you can’t just show a kid the letter b once and they know the name and the sound) I don’t agree with everything that goes on in the US education system (why I don’t teach in it… I teach in China at an international school- I have taught in the US, and my mother is a teacher, so I know the system inside and out.) but there are whole lot of good teachers out there doing their best to teach children what they will need to know in the future.
Also, it’s less so the curricula at the elementary level that needs tweaking, it’s at the high school level that the US falls behind. No matter where you live, you need to learn how to read and write and do basic math, that’s not going to change. Children also think concretely, and you can’t force them to think abstractly before they’re ready (about age 10-12). You can give them the skills that they will need to think creatively, and use problem solving skills, but a 5th grader is barely ready cognitively to grasp the kingdoms described above. Which is why the teacher had the students draw pictures of each of the kingdoms- it makes it more concrete and less abstract. They can learn the basic concept and build on it later when they are ready.
Finally, facts are not what our children need. Memorizing straight facts are important, but not the end-all. (having your times tables memorized is a valuable skill for example.) It’s the ability to think outside of the box, the problem-solving, reasoning skillsthat will help our children to succeed in the next 50-100 years as technology and the world expands and somehow shrinks at the same time. My 15 students come from 12 countries and speak very often more than one language, about half hold 2 passports, and most have probably been to more countries and hold more visas than the average American adult. But they still need to learn how to read. I take my job, my calling very seriously.

By: Sid Morrison

Sid Morrison — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:20:20 +0000

Hah hah… I remebered the King Phillip mnemonic a little different so I thought I’d look it up. It turns out there are a LOT of variants, many pretty funny:
en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Biology_mnemonics.

As for Molly – Yes, this is exactly what they *should* be teaching 5th graders. Unfortunately, the dumbed-down curriculae of many (US) government schools concentrate on fluff for the first 8 or 9 years and not too many facts. Read about E.D. Hirsch (and he’s not the only one!) for some better ideas on educating our children.

Straight talk from Sid.

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 22:46:04 +0000

Another trick to remembering the taxonomy order:
King Philip Comes Over For Girl Scouts… that’s saved me in zoology and anthro classes.

great article too!

By: Molly

Molly — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:53:37 +0000

Seriously. I just graduated college last year, taking some serious science classes along the way, and none of it was this complicated. If they’re teaching fifth graders this kind of thing, maybe I should rethink teaching preschool. They’ll be having me teach the kiddies how to fingerpaint pictures of quarks and how to make a papier-mache Schrodinger’s cat.

By: john csakany

john csakany — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:43:45 +0000

Not too long ago, dna analysis revealed that we are more closely related to fungi than to green plants.

It’s thought that this is why yeast infections are so difficult to get rid of.

Personally, I like my fruiting bodies on pizza or sautéed in butter and garlic.

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:24:16 +0000

ugh. i think i’m going to go shoot myself now instead of facing down the crap i’m going to have to learn in biology when i go back to college shortly to get my genetics degree. lol

well, at least i found this article, which should (hopefully) give me a leg up on my studies.

i just got out of a bio-intensive course load not too long ago, and i sure don’t remember anythign about domain and life.

oh, my head hurts. lol
they change this stuff way too often.

but at least you have to give the string theory people one thing: it makes for facinating reading!

By: Miss Cellania

Miss Cellania — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:52:23 +0000

That is toast (or bread), with mold instead of butter! I think she just labeled the top picture as “mushroom.”

By: Johnny Cat

Johnny Cat — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:47:45 +0000

I like your daughter’s illustration. Is that a Fly Algaric mushroom I spy? And is that not toast right below it? With some butter on it?

By: Doc

Doc — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:00:18 +0000

Aaron, can’t help you with the newer stages of matter (originals were solid, liquid, & gas… but then some wise-ass came up with plasma). Dunno what has come up since I quit taking physics classes seriously – Newton & Einstein’s universe came apart and we ended up with Quantum and String Theory.

Personally, I think all this is just a way for PhD candidates and University Profs to justify their research grants.

I do recall Doug Adams announced the discovery/labeling of all sub-atomic particles but can’t remember what they were, other than one was “peppermint”.