And my wife thinks I am cynical

Posted on January 12, 2011 by admin

Wow – Gary Stager sure does not like Daniel Pink. Ok, but he pushed it too far when he belittled Thomas Friedman.

There are plenty of folks out there with perspectives and little more – I agree. BTW – we each probably have our target groups – those who seem to tell a good story with little data. The money issue aside (I agree with you here regarding speaker fees and Daniel Pink’s work reminds me of the early days of Psychology Today), you might note that some of the most prominent researchers in the field of education suggest the constructivist position is pretty soft on empirical support. 

 

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3 Responses to And my wife thinks I am cynical

  1. Gary Stager, Ph.D. says:
    January 12, 2011 at 3:33 am

    Dear Admin,

    I don’t believe I was debating constructivism, just reviewing a terrible book and what it means that so many educators have embraced it. I’m not sure that qualifies as cynicism, but that is open to debate.

    You might also http://bit.ly/dJ4R01

    I’m wondering why you feel compelled to defend bestelling millionaires Pink or Friedman? I also wonder what my review has anything to do with constructivism? Are you trying to provoke a fight? Isn’t that the sort of cynical action you acuse me of?

    You might notice that I began my review of Friedman’s book in http://stager.tv/blog/?p=1610 that I acknowledged admiration for Mr. Friedman. Since I wrote that in 2006, my respect for him as ebbed for a number of reasons, including the fact that I believe he still supports the Iraq war.

    Hey, but I’m not alone. Rolling Stone national correspondent Matt Taibbi has written at least two incredibly critical articles about Mr. Friedman’s journalism.

    http://bit.ly/aShIWf

    Best Wishes,

    Gary Stager

    PS: The “scholarship” you point to in your refutation of constructivism suffers from a fundamental error. It cannot discern the difference between teaching and learning. Constructivism is a learning theory. It has nothing to do with teacher efficacy. I can’t speak to the prominence of the bloggers.

    • admin says:
      January 13, 2011 at 2:51 am

      Gary – I wrote the post you are reading more than two years ago. Evidently you discovered it when it was moved to a different blog software. If I was trying to provoke a fight, I forget exactly what got me upset in the first place.

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