Blue Man Group School Scrutinized As Parents Say Kids Can't Read

[NJres]

They accept students of all colors. (Any more bad jokes out there?)

[toledo]

^^^That'd a good one, NJres^^^

[paying3tuitions]

Hellloooo, teacher in the early minutes of that Time video about this school -- as you read a book to young children, you're supposed show THEM the pages.

You already know how to read; they don't.

[Hanna]

My Montessori school let us determine what we did all day, and a majority of us chose to use it to educate ourselves with all the interesting books and materials in the classroom. I have no idea whether it was working at this school, but it worked for most of the kids at mine. No one failed to learn to read unless they were seriously disabled -- peer pressure provided all the motivation we needed.

[SteveMA]

I don't know but, if you visited that school and saw that they didn't have books or tests, wouldn't that sort of be a tip off that teaching kids to read might not be high on the priority list??

[rachelm57]

I guess huff post used the onion as their "source" this time. It's hard to believe that this true! It's really a pathetic excuse for an education! And they paid for it!

Sent from my Desire HD using CC

[soozievt]

While I am not familiar with this school and whether it is successful or not at what it does, I would not judge it based on that article. For starters, the article claims no books. The video itself shows shelves in the classroom with books and a teacher reading a book to the kids (though she should have had the book facing the kids!). When it says the kids create their own curriculum, I am assuming that they make choices among offerings that the teachers provide. This can be a good thing. As Hanna pointed out, she did that when she went to Montessori school. As far as tests, I really don't think many tests are needed in K-3! There may be evaluations in terms of end of the year or determining what a child needs to work on, but I don't think tests as part of daily curriculum is what primary education really should be about anyway. So, while I don't have the specifics on that school, I don't think the concepts behind it are negative. I think the article doesn't represent it well.

For clarification, I used to be a primary teacher in a multi-age classroom and have taught undergraduate and graduate courses in developmentally appropriate curriculum for this age group.

[megpmom]

I've been following the Blue Man school for a while, ever since Nightline did a piece on it. Actually, it sounds a lot like my kids' public Montessori school - no tests, no worksheets, no desks, etc. Just a lot of "centers" that the kids could pick from, or like my son, choose to sit under the table with a book reading about dinosaurs all day. I remember visiting on the first or second day of kindergarten and one kid was asleep in the corner, another was learning to hold a pencil for first time (low income school). And both of those kids are going to be seniors in HS next year and are perfectly fine. There are lots of different educational methods and, while not all parents like some of the methods, they all have successful track records. I'd send my grandkids to Blue Man school!

[busdriver11]

Would you send your grandkids to the Blue Man school if this is true, "The Blue School, a private school located in New York City's Financial District, has no books?"

No books? We were reading to the kids before they could walk, and they were reading by around 2. Is that statement an error, or accurate? What kind of school would have no books?

[Hunt]

But it's clearly not true that there are no books.

[busdriver11]

That's a major fact for the reporters to get wrong.

[soozievt]

Look at the video. There are shelves with books on them, including a typical type of shelf in primary classrooms where the book covers face forward. In addition, I think there are tubs on the floor with books in them too. The teacher is even reading a book to the kids!

[megpmom]

Did the reporters mean no "textbooks"? That I would believe. But obviously they have books available for the kids.

[warbrain]

That's a major fact for the reporters to get wrong.

Well, the source was the New York Post.

[soozievt]

Frankly, when I taught primary grades, I did not use TEXTBOOKS either.