Norman Edmund’s Educational Blog

Meeting participants often must make decisions on complex, important problems. Discussions can wander all over the spectrum. To get order, just furnish each participant with a copy of The Scientific Method Today. Start at ingredient one and have a little discussion on observations about the problem. Then go on to ingredient two and present the problem in the form of a question. Here you want to define the problem properly. Continue on through the other stages. You might even have to jump around, since the scientific method is not a rigid method. After this is done a number of times, participants will get the idea and use the method more efficiently.

Those submitting reports to meetings should consider following the scientific method format. This shows participants that a professional analysis has been made.

ACT has issued a new report that says only about half of our nation’s ACT-tested high school students are ready for college-level reading. This seems to be a good report. It is available online at ACT’s website. It shows that African Americans and Hispanic Americans fare worst in the test. The report doesn’t mention it, but remember that those tested were most likely taught reading by the whole language method. This method most harmed students in urban schools. Now that they are being taught phonics, perhaps things will improve.

A big point in the report is that reading skills and strategies are not being taught during high school years. Students who can read complex texts are more likely to be ready for college. Reading comprehension is a big problem.

It is my contention that if problem solving is taught across the curriculum from K-12, reading comprehension will greatly increase.

ACT is doing a public service with this report, but it also illustrates the need I mention in my book for a permanent specialized SM-14 type national research center on reading. We should have had one way back in 1955 when Rudolph Flesch wrote Why Johnny Can’t Read.

The situation described in the ACT report is another example of the harm being caused by the non-teaching and non-use of the scientific method by our educational researchers and top leaders.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. They sure did this for me. When I published my book End the Biggest Educational and Intellectual Blunder in History I knew that many publications wouldn’t review it because it revealed the biggest educational and intellectual blunder in history in which they had participated and perpetuated for more than 50 years. Correction of the blunder could hurt their reputations and pocketbooks. Sure enough, even though students, teachers, and America in general are being severely harmed by the blunder, my book is not being given publicity or stimulating study and debate in the media and professional journals.

But Google came through and included my book in their booksearch program. So don’t fail to read it at Google. Go to books.google.com. Tell your friends about how to get around the media’s censorship by going to the Google booksearch site.

While many states are requiring students to pass algebra to graduate from high school, there are plenty of people who oppose it.

Professor Gerald Bracey has spoken out against this practice for years. In his column in the March/April issue of Teacher, Ron Wolk, founder of Education Week and Teacher magazine speaks out against too much emphasis on algebra. It has been shown that the algebra requirement is a major cause of dropouts. Some people just can’t learn it, and others know they won’t need it and don’t want to be forced into taking the course. This is another of the problems of education that is studied, written about, and has positive and negative claims made about it. We need a small permanent, specialized SM-14 type national research center to advise educators on the teaching of algebra and higher math in general.

The New York Times Sunday Magazine (2/26/06) had an article about all the copy cats of No Child Left Behind (no vote left behind, no democrat left behind, etc.). So I’m joing the crowd with No Intellectual Left Behind. Here’s the paradox - our top intellectual leaders push our teachers to leave no child behind in school while I have been trying hard since 1992 to accomplish No Intellectual Left Behind on the best method of originating, refining, extending, and applying knowledge ever recognized and developed - the scientific method.

Currently and in the past many in our intellectual community have recognized the scientific method. Just type “scientific method” into Google, and you get 9,240,000 hits (on 2/24/06).

While a few people have written to me to acknowledge that my book, End the Biggest Educational and Intellectual Blunder in History, hits the nail on the head, others to whom I have sent letters, reports, and books largely remain silent.

I really am happy despite all my aches and pains. I just learned that Google book search has now put my book End the Biggest Educational and Intellectual Blunder in History on the internet. Thank you, Google, for this birthday present and for your contribution to the advancement of knowledge. Anyone interested doesn’t have to wonder what the book is like. Just type into Google search scientific method stages (among other things) and then you can examine the title page, table of contents, sample pages, etc.

Magazines and newspapers have been reluctant to report on my book because I’m not a member of academia with a famous record, I step on a lot of people’s and organization’s reputations, it’s difficult for many to believe that a blunder of the size I describe could exist, correcting the blunder requires a lot of changes, and for other reasons. To be honest, I must mention that I made the book too long in my attempt to tell the whole story. Its size discourages some people. In the book, I do advise people to skip read those chapters that do not interest them. However, there are a lot of very important chapters that will interest you. So go to Google and tell your friends to do so too.

The February 23, 2006 issue of The Wall Street Journal has an article about how big employers, in their search for skilled workers, are backing career-driven summer camps. This is great, but they should also get behind my movement to teach the scientific method in all grades across the curriculum. This would increase the skills of American workers more than almost anything else. Because of the blunder, our top leaders don’t know about the value of the scientific method - the complete method of creative problem solving and decision making for all fields. Career-driven camps should include it in their programs.

The scientific method is a guide to mental activity stages. However, it also serves the purpose of being a discipline for those following it. It keeps them on the right track, trains them not to ignore contrary evidence, encourages them to be ethical, seek creative solutions, to test, etc. Thus, it lives up to its reputation of being a self-correcting method. Often people think that the requirement that the hypothesis be tested is its self-correcting feature, but this is only one of them. Researchers are always under pressure to produce results, finish on time, and be first. Human nature being what it is, you get better research if the discipline of the scientific method is enforced. Universities supervising the research and government agencies awarding grants should, as part of their responsibilities, be sure that researchers are following the discipline of the scientific method.

An article by Mindy Sink with the above title appeared in the Science Times section of The New York Times on February 21, 2006. It describes a growing movement of Cafe Scientifiques that has sprung up. These are informal meetings in cafes, bars, etc. at which scientists answer questions from attendees about science. Sigma Xi, the scientific honor society, recently hosted a gathering of Cafe Scientifique leaders in North Carolina.

This is a great movement and illustrates peoples’ interest in science. It also illustrates the bad effects of the blunder. Because of it, scientists - and everyone else - have not been taught a standard formula for the stages of the scientific method. Thus, scientists are often at a loss to explain the method of science to the public clearly and completely.

The scientific journals have not reported on my efforts to end the blunder, so scientists are usually not familiar with the SM-14 formula, which is the best one available today.

Again I say let’s end the blunder for the good of everyone!

Today is Presidents’ Day. Although this is a day to celebrate our country’s presidents, it reminds me of my problem with presidents of our educational and intellectual organizations. In the years since the publication of my first pamphlets and special reports, I have written to many organization presidents. The results have been disappointing. None has been willing to stick his or her neck out and investigate the scientific method misunderstandings. Thus, the blunder gets bigger and bigger.

Write to the presidents of the organizations you belong to and ask them to appoint a committee to investigate the status of the scientific method. I’ll be glad to send them copies of my book, which explains the situation.