"Although you do not know his name, Siegfried (Zig) Engelmann is one of the most talked-about authors in the country right now. His most prominent work, which you have not read, is a story for second graders. It begins, “A girl got a pet goat." Engelmann’s story is the one that George W. Bush was reading in a Florida classroom on the morning of September 11, 2001." [The New Yorker]
The news article mentioned above and this one are recent stories about Siegfried (Ziggy) Engelmann and the influence his direct instruction model is having on public education.
When I was five, I took part in one of Ziggy's direct instruction classroom experiments at the University of Illinois. I don't recall much, but I remember sitting in a circle reading a book written in a phonetic-permutation of the alphabet, practicing math using a number line, and some mundane stuff such as driving in a carpool and lining up to use the restroom.
One particularly vivid memory I have is of being taught how parallel lines converge at infinity. I can still see in my mind's eye the green chalkboard with a handdrawn sketch of a long bridge with its edges getting progressively closer. I think that was the first time I'd thought about the notion of infinity. It very well may also have been the eureka moment when I discovered how useful "thought experiments" could be. Not sure.
The goal of the class was to teach a lot more--maybe someday I'll get into all the things they showed us--but after I joined the public schools many of the particulars got lost although I've often felt like the principles stuck with me. It's only a hunch I have, but in later years when I was re-taught the same material in schools I think I was unintentionally mapping it to what I learned in Ziggy's classes.
My younger brother, who was also in the classroom experiment, has wondered about a follow up study. What happened to the students in the class? Do they all have poor spelling, like me? How much do they remember of the material? Did they keep using any of it or did they have to re-learn everything later?
It's intriguing how some early education, such as this, can impact you for years to come. I'm fairly sure my nature to practice, practice, practice when it comes to math originated in this class. And it's no wonder that MathPractice and WritingPractice are written as they are--although my Dad has wondered how come I haven't developed a number line version :-).
Posted by Loren at July 20, 2004 02:34 PM