Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Teacher in a Strange Land: Acceleration Nation

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This article contributes to what is an emerging debate about 'learning loss' from the pandemic. The solution being proposed in some quarters, writes Nancy Flanagan, is "not reviewing what he may have missed—it's accelerating. Going faster. Catching up, then presumably surging ahead. Winning." Because "your kid doesn't need remediation to bring him up to speed after this year of screen-based semi-school. He needs acceleration! Sure he's, umm, fallen behind somebody, somewhere." She writes that she was "struck by the totally American nature of this language—We Must Compete! No remediation for us!" I think there's a point there, but it will take more than a paean to competent caring teachers to respond to the irresistible marketing trend being unleashed on administrators and politicians.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 2:26 p.m.

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