Vygotsky, Student of Karl Marx, hero of the Dialogic Method now imposed on Dothan City Schools

What brought Dialogic Reading to my attention? The minutes of the Dothan City School Board for 05/16/2022 05:30 PM 

There is hope on the horizon with READING HORIZONS and HEGGERTY IF ONLY THE SCHOOL BOARD  WOULD LET THE ALABAMA READING INITIATIVE GUIDE K-12 READING --AND NOT JUST REMEDIATION. 

Instead, it appears they must create dyslexics with whole language--and then remediate them. Great if you happen to be making money off of failure. Or have an ulterior motive. 

However, I am concerned now about DIALOGIC READING. Read about Vygotsky. Would you want this Russian Marxist teaching your child? Then why do we adopt the methods he helped create? And why did he create the dialogic? 

Through outlining core principles in Marxist psychology, the book offers a framework for continuing Vygotsky's Marxist legacy in new areas of the field.

Now, let's ask the question why do we let our school curriculum be dominated by avowed Marxists? 

"A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism." Saul Alinsky

You could identify a Marxist if you saw one, couldn't you? 

"True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within." Saul Alinsky

THEN let's ask the question, "What is AFFECTIVE data? That was about all I heard when I listened to the Power Point presentation on Social Emotional Learning. And I mention it only because it would appear that emotions are what have guided our School Board to adopt Dialogic Reading because I see no empirical data to support its use. 

"Although the issues around emotions and learning are not new, the term affective learning has only recently been defined as the learning that relates to the learner's interests, attitudes, and motivations. In the digital age we live, affective learning is destined to be technology driven or at least enhanced."

In other words how do the children "feel" about it. 

There is nothing objective here. Everything is subjective. And remember, our teachers ARE NOT PSYCHOLOGISTS. 

So, why is Vygotsky even on our radar?  In reviewing the minutes of the Dothan City School Meeting that I attended in May of 2021, I stumbled upon two things that had not registered on me. I did recall Social Emotional Learning in the Dothan Preparatory School presented with a full Power Point presentation by Ms. Lauren Parker and Ms. Jeanette Randal. 

But, in re-reading the Minutes of the meeting, I found one good thing.  Though it is only for one month (June 21 to July 15) of remediation-- they are using a very good reading program that would have eliminated the need for those 600 students to attend summer school because of their poor reading skills had it been used for initial reading instruction. 

Look at the number of teachers and support that had to go into this summer school program.  If READING HORIZONS (uses the Orton Gillingham Method) had only been used beginning in kindergarten instead of the Look/See/Guess program of Whole Language they would be proficient readers instead of perceiving themselves as "losers" attending summer school.

But the second thing I noticed while reading the minutes--and the reason I know they are still using WHOLE LANGUAGE? 

"DIALOGIC READING!" 

So, what is Dialogic Reading?  It did not take long to find articles on "dialogic reading" and to discover that Vygotsky and Freire are the heroes of dialogic instruction. 

But, we also see the influence of Gestalt psychology and Max Wertheimer.

Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole. When trying to make sense of the world around us, Gestalt psychology suggests that we do not simply focus on every small component. Instead, our minds tend to perceive objects as elements of more complex systems.

A core belief in Gestalt psychology is holism, or that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.1

 This school of psychology has played a major role in the modern development of the study of human sensation and perception.

Traditional Educators believe in sequential learning. Taking the small, establishing the foundation and then  building up. Phonics (systematic, intensive, direct and early SIDE) does this. Whole Language/Paolo Freire/Vygotsky/Michael Apple do not. 

 Vygotsky is listed in the journals as the leader of the Dialogic movement. Please notice Vygotsky's major influencers. One you will immediately recognize, of course, is Karl Marx. 

So, our teachers must DIALOG with the children, rather than teach reading or math.  They will call this reading because they usually select a book as their jumping off point for classroom dialoguing. Look at the reading and math scores. Look at the rise in suicide, violence, etc. And this is what we get out of our schools?

When you see WHOLE LANGUAGE, PAOLO FREIRE, MICHAEL APPLE, VYGOTSKY, LET THE ALARM BELLS SOUND.  

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development

By Saul Mcleod, PhD | Updated August 18, 2022,

"The work of Lev Vygotsky (1934) has become the foundation of much research and theory in cognitive development over the past several decades, particularly of what has become known as sociocultural theory.

Vygotsky's sociocultural theory views human development as a socially mediated process in which children acquire their cultural values, beliefs, and problem-solving strategies through collaborative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society. Vygotsky's theory is comprised of concepts such as culture-specific tools, private speech, and the Zone of Proximal Development.

Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition (Vygotsky, 1978), as he believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning."

Unlike Piaget's notion that childrens' development must necessarily precede their learning, Vygotsky argued, "learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological function" (1978, p. 90).  In other words, social learning tends to precede (i.e., come before) development."

It gets worse. This high brow educratese can make a person sick to their stomach, but it is the names of these people that sound off the alarm bells. It only took reading the Whole Language Catalog once to make me recognize these "philosophers," upon whom Dothan City Schools has based their entire curriculum, as Typhoid Marys of our school curricula. In the Whole Language Catalog, I met Paolo Freire (liberation theology and liberation pedagogy and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed), Michael Apple, and others cited in this DIALOGIC support system. I could go on...

Notice the term CONSTRUCTIVISM in the article below. 

Dr. Tommy Bice, former gay Superintendent for the state of Alabama, is a board member of the Magic City Acceptance Academy (grades 6 through 12), one of Alabama's first charter schools. They state on their website:

 "...educational pedagogy and curriculum design that best meets our needs as a community of learners will be rooted in Constructivism. The basic tenet of Constructivism is that learners, simply put, construct learning through a variety of experiences. Learners construct knowledge rather than simply sit and take in information. As people experience problems and situations they reflect on what they experience and they create or build their own representations and incorporate new information into their pre-existing knowledge (schemas).

The essential components in constructivist theory are to elicit prior knowledge, create cognitive dissonance, and apply the knowledge with feedback and reflection on learning. These components are best utilized in project-based, cooperative, learning activities that reflect elements with meaning to, or are relevant to the students’ lives and community." 

There is nothing innocent about the phrase "create cognitive dissonance." Cognitive dissonance is a state of confusion brought about by conflicting beliefs. There are a number of different situations that can create cognitive dissonance, such as "Forced Compliance." 

"Sometimes you might find yourself engaging in behaviors that are opposed to your own beliefs due to external expectations, often for work, school, or a social situation. This might involve going along with something due to peer pressure..," according to the verywellmind website. So, are kindergarteners strong enough to withstand the peer pressure and proselytizing of an agenda "contrary to the fixed beliefs of their parents?"  And how is this Constitutional? 

"Constructivist" equals "cognitive dissonance"

Remember Constructivism = Cognitive Dissonance = Confusion 

Notice the importance of VYGOTSKY IN THE DIALOGIC.

Notice below how Michael Apple focuses on TRANSFORMATION.  "Transformation requires emphasis on the instrumental dimension of dialogue as a means for knowledge making. Such instrumental dimension refers to those aspects of school knowledge which are required to trespass the doors of socio-economic access to the Information Society (Apple and Beane, 2007). Also in a society where social change is constant, it is easier to see more processes of loss of meaning (Habermas, 1987). Participation in dialogic learning emerges as an important instrument for the creation of meaning (Elbow and Puigvert, 2004). 

Importantly, by sharing different points of view and ways of solving problems though dialogue guided by validity claims, transformation occurs at two levels: intrapsychological and inter psychological. Intrapsychological because through dialogue existing knowledge gets transformed and expanded. Interpsychological because what is shared mentally is the result of the addition of every person's knowledge in dialogue with the knowledge of others, which generates a new state of mind. Overall, dialogic learning is aimed at transformation, personal and socio-cultural, and not to adaptation.

 

Transformed/TRANSFORMATION are the operative words here. 

And here comes the Marxist priest Paolo Freire, the god of Whole Language and Liberation Pedagogy and now the source for the Dialogic. 

Transcription of above.

In Freire (2003), the concept of "unity in diversity" is central and embodies the notion that dialogue and unity among different people, unity in diversity of their origins and life projects, are necessary to enable individuals to fight for decent living conditions and to respect different ways of being. The opposite is what produces inequalities (Freire,1970).This analysis shows how society and culture are present in the constitution of identities. Note that Freire (2003) draws attention to the fact that multiculturalism is not a "natural process, but a product of colonialism, domination, and wars. Hence to be experienced as a source of knowledge and human enrichment, a political decision must be made about how to achieve co-existence and the protection of those that are different (Mellon 2009a) For Habermas (1987), the co-existence of different cultures, not just side by side but also with one another requires communication between them. The author claims the need for deliberative democracy to ensure the rights of citizens with different cultural backgrounds to live under the same rights. 

These are terms cloaked in morality just as Alinsky in his Rules for Radicals delineated. 

"All effective actions require the passport of morality. You do what you can and clothe it in moral garments." Saul Alinsky

And there we have the purpose of Dialogic Reading. 

Overall, dialogic learning is aimed at transformation, personal and socio-cultural, and not to adaptation.  Did you get that?

There, now you know why you send your children to school. TRANSFORMATION, PERSONAL AND SOCIOCULTURAL. 

"Curiosity and irreverence go together. Curiosity cannot exist without the other. Curiosity asks, "Is this true?" "Just because this has always been the way, is the best or right way of life, the best or right religion, political or economic value, morality?" To the questioner, nothing is sacred. He detests dogma, defies any finite definition of morality, rebels against any repression of a free, open search of ideas no matter where they may lead. He is challenging, insulting, agitating, discrediting. He stirs unrest." Saul Alinsky

This is the dialogic. And what is its purpose?

Freire's purpose is not to unify, but divide because his end goal is REVOLUTION. 

And then here with Apple & Beane, 2007, we get to the true meaning of their purpose. They are to be guided to do what? 

As Saul Alinsky said,:

"The first step in community organization is community disorganization. The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are to be displace by new patterns.... All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new."

We know

1. The constructivist methodology they claim to use creates cognitive dissonance (confusion). 

2. Because our traditional schools promote what parents expect of our schools: children who can read, write, and calculate and maintain the morals and values of their parents, those views are now to be imposed, according to their ideology.

3. This crisis of meaning, in their perspective, can be changed in the argumentation of the dialogic method. 

4. Hereby, they gain solidarity toward the goals of the Marxist ideologies upon which the philosophies the dialogic is founded. 

They are playing with our kids' minds here, friends. 

Transcription of jpeg below: 

Also in a society where social change is constant, it is easier to see more processes of loss of meaning (Habermas, 1987). Participation in dialogic learning emerges as an important instrument for the creation of meaning (Elbow and Puigvert, 2004). Faced with multiple possible choices of how to live, it is difficult to design a single project for all groups or people, and it is difficult for the school to know which values to foster. But usually dominant groups impose their views and discourses, also in schools, and this generates crises of meaning. However, in dialogues where different points of view emerge and are acknowledged on the ground of argumentation, individuals come to know more possibilities and thus choose more freely and critically. Such process creates more opportunities for gaining greater coherence between dreams and actual life. This in turn relates to the principle of solidarity. In dialogic learning environments participants share their knowledge for the benefit of all members of the group. 

If by now you have not absorbed the true goal of this, let Bill Ayers let you in on it. 

BILL AYERS

"Education is the motor-force of revolution." Bill Ayers

"I get up every morning and think...today I'm going to end capitalism."

"Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon,"

"The only path to the final defeat of imperialism and the building of socialism is revolutionary war."

"Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at."

"I haven't been silent. I teach, I lecture at universities, I write, I'm not silent."

--"Guilty as hell. Free as a bird. America is a great country."

"I was a child of privilege and I woke up to a world on fire."

"I don't regret setting bombs."

I scrolled through the Alabama Reading Initiative. I did not see  Dialogic Reading anywhere.

To the Dothan City School Board: 

I think you earn a salary to occupy that seat. I recommend that you research for yourself the things that come before the board. Ultimately, you are responsible. You have the ultimate oversight and the right to fire and hire administrators that can do the job. Your people produced this. Who got fired?

To the Dothan City Commission, Chamber of Commerce, and Business Council:  

The Dothan City Schools spend from $8000 to over $10,000 per child depending upon the school. And yet you support more and more fundraisers to shore up failure. At what point do you quit listening to those who have caused the problem tell you how to fix it? 

A Plus, supposed grassroots Research organization, has led you down the garden path to Goals 2000, Outcome Based Education, Common Core... It is part of a consortium --the Columbia Group. Those in whom you placed your trust have betrayed you and therefore the parents and children of our community and state. You are supposed to be the gatekeepers. Man/Woman up and do your job!

Alabama is 52nd in education. Dead last in Math. Look to the colleges of education for the Typhoid Marys of our delinquent schools. Why do those people sit on the education committees for the Chamber of Commerce and Business Council? Will they rock the boat? Or insist upon keeping the status quo. Circling the wagons as I have seen them do over and over. 

Look at the child standing on the corner ashamed of his failure and acting out in the only way he/she knows  to survive. He does not realize the schools failed him. The information is available for what works. It has been for over thirty years. Who is keeping it from you---and why?

If you cannot recognize repackaged failure when presented to you, do a little research. Find out what is different. Don't let them tell you you cannot do it. That is why you are there! Challenge them. 

Retarding America: the Imprisonment of Potential by Michael Bruner is a must read. What will you do to break the cycle? Support more of the same?