Month: June 2026

How to Succeed at Rosenshine Without Really Trying

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June 26, 2026

11:06 am

20 Comments on How to Succeed at Rosenshine Without Really Trying

teaching

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1. Rosenshine’s Success Principle

There has been a discussion of late, here and at Greg Ashman’s place and in Elon’s sewer, of whether Rosenshine’s principles are simply general principles – principles which guys like me consider basically good by being basically common sense – or whether Rosenshine’s principles amount to more, um, explicit instructions, which are thereby more open to specific critique. The answer would appear to be either, or neither, depending upon which of the three will sell better in a given context.1 Continue reading “How to Succeed at Rosenshine Without Really Trying” →

The Thrilling Epsilon Lemma

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June 21, 2026

10:29 pm

10 Comments on The Thrilling Epsilon Lemma

Puzzles

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Yesterday, I posted an inequality proposition for readers to ponder:

Suppose that \color{RawSienna}\boldsymbol{a} and \color{RawSienna}\boldsymbol{b} are real numbers, and suppose that for every \color{RawSienna}\boldsymbol{\epsilon>0}, we have

    \[\color{RawSienna}\boldsymbol{a\leqslant b + \epsilon\,.}\]

Prove that \color{RawSienna}\boldsymbol{a\leqslant b}.

The discussion was very interesting, and thank you very much to the industrious and thoughtful readers-commenters. I had planned an update, but there turned out to be a lot that I thought worth writing, and so I decided on this separate post. Continue reading “The Thrilling Epsilon Lemma” →

PoSWW 59: Don’t Enter This Matrix

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June 19, 2026

7:31 pm

18 Comments on PoSWW 59: Don’t Enter This Matrix

PoSWW

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UPDATE (23/06/26)

Apparently the current digital version has this corrected. If that was already the case, and if the current paper version is also correct, then my post is not really kosher; it’s not fair to nitpick past stuff unless it indicates something particularly notable. It was dumb of me to not have checked, and I’ll update again or delete the post once the situation is clear. (I’m not donning a hair shirt over this but, unlike VCAA, I have standards.) (06/09/26 As near as I can tell, the most recent print edition of the text contains the error. So, all good, so to speak.)

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This one, a very welcome respite from the explicit nonsense, is due to frequent commenter, SRK. It is an exercise from Cambridge’s General Mathematics 34. As SRK notes, it is low-hanging fruit. But, when the fruit is that funny, you just have to pick it: Continue reading “PoSWW 59: Don’t Enter This Matrix” →

Taking Off the Rosenshine

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June 18, 2026

8:09 am

31 Comments on Taking Off the Rosenshine

teaching

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Last week, I wrote a couple posts on the incoming orthodoxy of “Explicit Teaching” and the perverted form it has taken in some schools, with the mandating of PowerPoint lesson plans and of what are either arguably or undeniably scripted lessons. I suggested that, with his strong ET advocacy and his media omnipresence, Greg Ashman (and Ochre) might wish to consider saying something, anything, about this fresh pedagogical hell. A few days later, Ashman responded, in his co-Caiti podcast. Continue reading “Taking Off the Rosenshine” →

Escaping Device-Like Grip

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June 16, 2026

2:27 pm

12 Comments on Escaping Device-Like Grip

technology

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There is something funny about the word “device”. It has vague meaning but, like “technology”, the word is used more to be vague than to be meaningful, to fess up to what is really going on. See Tom Lehrer for a black funny use of “device”. In any case, the Victorian Government has just taken a very good step in the management of “devices”. Continue reading “Escaping Device-Like Grip” →

VCAA Are Still Being Idiot Dicks

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June 13, 2026

5:52 pm

15 Comments on VCAA Are Still Being Idiot Dicks

VCAA

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Believe it or not, I have been trying to get along with Boss Smith. I really have. I am still open-minded to, albeit skeptical of, the possibility that Boss Smith may instigate some proper and desperately needed reform. The CAS programming thing was a positive step; even if it was obvious and way late and way too little, it was a positive step, and a step that was inconceivable just a few years ago. But it is really hard to get along with the Boss, it is really difficult to remain open-minded, when the cretins involved within and/or involved with VCAA, the cretins for whom Smith is ultimately responsible, keep doing the same cretinous things. Continue reading “VCAA Are Still Being Idiot Dicks” →

WitCH 154: AAMT’s Excellence in Unreadable Statements

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June 13, 2026

3:41 pm

4 Comments on WitCH 154: AAMT’s Excellence in Unreadable Statements

WitCH

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No, we’re not by any means done with whacking PowerPoint and scripted lesson plans and the explicit overreachers. But, there are a couple things fresh in the in-box, and it would be a relief to quickly out-box them. And, the easy way is to WitCH them and then worry about them, well, probably never. Continue reading “WitCH 154: AAMT’s Excellence in Unreadable Statements” →

Boss Smith’s Sermon on the Mount

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June 10, 2026

9:43 am

11 Comments on Boss Smith’s Sermon on the Mount

VCAA

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The Age‘s Schools Summit is today, and VCAA’s Andrew Smith has one of the keynotes. Smith’s title:

How a well-designed curriculum can contribute to developing well-rounded individuals who are prepared to contribute meaningfully to society and the workforce.

And, um, which “well-designed curriculum” might that be, Andrew? ACARA’s K-10 masterpiece? Or, are you referring to your own VCE gem? Continue reading “Boss Smith’s Sermon on the Mount” →

Throwing in the Towell

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June 8, 2026

10:24 am

20 Comments on Throwing in the Towell

teaching

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A couple days ago, The Age featured an article by Education Editor, Noel Towell, on the “learning wars”, the new education battlefront. Towell is clear enough, and even-handed, and he gets it wrong, in a very educational manner.

I’m not particularly writing to criticise Towell, with whom I’ve chatted a couple times (by memory, he’s quoted me once), and whom I like.1 His article is thin – mostly a plug for this week’s Age Schools Summit2 – and is missing a critical point, but pretty much everybody else is missing the critical point, and it is the “everybody” upon which I wish to focus. Continue reading “Throwing in the Towell” →