Old School Vs New School. Are there best practices for learning? By Rashad Davis

Recent trends in education have brought about the demise of some of the old ways of teaching.  The method of skill and drill has become antiquated and even heretical in today's educational arena.  Teaching vocabulary words by having students define them in a dictionary has been squashed by those who champion best practice strategies.  The result of these initiatives is lower test scores and students who underperform.  The United States trails the world in math and science and many of our children struggle in the area of reading and comprehension.

The question then, is how do we best teach our students the vital skills they require to at least be proficient in the upper grades?  What are really the best practices for student learning?  My view is that there is no set of best practices.  

In my own experience as a student, I remember learning my times tables by rote.  No one explained to me why five times five is twenty-five.  And at that age, it really didnt matter.  I just had to know it.  Only later did I understand the importance of learning times tables.  When I was being taught how to diagram a sentence, it didn't seem particularly important at the time.  It was only later that that skill was applied to more complex writing.  The point to these rigorous drilling of vital skills was so that the information would become second nature.  When writing, I give no thought to the difference between to, too and two.  More and more I find that students lack basic skills which make it impossible for them to meet the standards of the upper grades.  This problem is not confined to one area of the country, but it is vast.  

By definition, best practices are the ones that have proven to be successful in teaching students what they need to know.  We as educators owe our degrees to the old school.  In essence, we are the result of best practices. Why then, is the old way now ineffective?  It's not a question of whether or not teachers should use different techniques to facilitate learning.  The real issue is why must methods that are tried and true give way to new ideas?  Why is the new automatically superior to and must therefore replace the old?  Isn't there room for tradition and innovation?