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Reader defends , “Dr. Fishbein, has presided over a period during which the corrosive influence of constructivist teaching methods has waned”

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“Dr. Fishbein, whatever some may say of him, has presided over a period during which the corrosive influence of constructivist teaching methods has waned somewhat and may now be losing its mojo. At the time Dr. Fishbein was hired, a huge push had been underway for years in the Ridgewood district in favor of denuding K-12 curricula of content and emphasizing process instead. As part of that push, the Trustees of our Board of Education put us on the brink of hiring for our superintendent the then-high priest of Constructivism and Reform Math (late of a Long Island district he conveniently abandoned rather than face the unmitigated displeasure of a growing army of pitchfork-bearing parents and taxpayers) together with his “man behind the curtain” wife as a kind of Bill and Hillary “two for one” deal. Like Hillary, who put her husband to shame in terms of her determination to promote the marxist/socialist agenda, the dedication our incoming supe’s wife had to the cause (as demonstrated by her history of hoovering up large amounts constructivism-promoting grant money and writing books on the subject), to say nothing of her radical street cred, probably exceeded that of her husband. We dodged a huge bullet when that zealot thankfully quit a couple of weeks before his scheduled start date and took his egghead wife with him to parts unknown. Within a few months, Superintendent Fishbein was hired. Within a year or so after that, we witnessed with enormous relief the resignation and apparent professional disappearance of long-time Assistant Superintendent in Charge of Curriculum Regina Botsford, whose radicalism and utter devotion to constructivist teaching methods was itself the stuff of legend among her K-12 curriculum development industry colleagues (Bill Ayers eventually went into that line of work, if that tells you anything). So the constructivist storm seems to have passed, at least for the time being, and Ridgewood was not established as the Mecca for constructivist teaching methods among U.S. K-12 public school districts. Your mileage may vary, but we might want to pause and at least thank Dr. Fishbein for what he isn’t!”

10 thoughts on “Reader defends , “Dr. Fishbein, has presided over a period during which the corrosive influence of constructivist teaching methods has waned”

  1. He’s a pompous …

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  2. Lots of personal opinion in the post. Front loaded the post with what passes for intellectual observation at McMurphy’s.

    In summary the person does not think that Dr. Fishbein is doing a good job. Got it.

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  3. It’s time for him to go.
    He is acting as a dictator.

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  4. Whatever he did, he has tanked the quality of education in Ridgewood.
    Ridgewood is no longer a competitive school district.

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  5. Y’all just don’t seem to get it. If the NJEA (and REA) says they don’t think its safe for their members to teach IN school this fall, how is Dr. Fishbein supposed to staff our schools? The teacher’s union is calling the shots here.

    I have no doubt the NJEA will make sure the entire universe of New Jersey public schools – all 583 operating districts, plus 92 charter and renaissance schools and more than 140 approved private schools for students with disabilities – will go all-remote next month.

    If the NJEA says teachers can’t return now when many school districts are seeing no new infections, transmission rates are low, and schools have never been cleaner or more prepared for a hybrid model, then when?

    The CARES act complicates staffing further by allowing teachers 17 weeks of leave at 60% of full pay. So how are boards and Superintendents supposed to physically staff their schools?

    Sounds like synchronous learning is here permanently until a vaccine or cure is widely available nationwide.

    1. that means staff reductions are in the pipeline

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  6. Anon, you can say what you want about “intellectual observation at McMurphy’s (sic)”, but residents here in Ridgewood know more about what happens than the eggheads at the BOE & REA who theorize on how to control thoughts as they trade bon mots at their cocktail parties. Should corona last for the long run, the intelligentsia and NJEA unions will be toast as they cling to their days gone by like the Luddites they are. I pity the truly great teachers in the district who have been lumped into the mix with the Marxists.

  7. So REA, if the Ridgewood BOE installs high efficiency HEPA filters in each classroom , will you agree to return to teach? These are recommended for critical healthcare applications like anterooms, isolation wards and COVID-19 patient rooms. When educational institutions reopen after the coronavirus outbreak, ASHRAE recommends a portable HEPA and UV air cleaner for each classroom, with at least two air rotations per hour. Will that, in addition to the already planned health, cleaning and physical distancing protocols, be enough for you to return to the physical classroom this fall? Or do you just not want to have to work full time but still receive full pay?

  8. Start the school year by letting the teachers and administrators, basically all the adults, stay home while all the students come in every day for a full day’s instruction. In addition to assembling in their regular classrooms the students will run the school and put one of their own in every office formerly occupied by an adult, including the principal’s office, secretaries and all the guidance counselors’ offices. The teachers will teach from home and the children will all do in-person learning together with each other. Easy-peasy. Yeah, by the middle of October the schools might all resemble the Lord of the Flies island, but by then maybe we will have shamed all the adults into coming back to work

  9. Go to school. It seems as though no body wants to work in any plan of starting in person.
    I want some tax money back. Let’s have the residents Talley about getting tax money back. Are teachers working less or harder since the pandemic?
    May be initially going remote
    But what about now?

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