Does Arne Duncan think that harder is better?
Does Arne Duncan think that harder is better?
Council Chronicle 3
Susan Ohanian and Stephen Krashen
Posted on NCTE Connected Community: OK to share
In "A conversation with US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan," (Council Chronicle, September, 2011), an NCTE interviewer asked Secretary Duncan for advice for students struggling with difficult texts, eg "texts from another time with different structures, references, and allusions that they may be unfamiliar with."
Secretary Duncan's answer? Students have to struggle, and they are going to love it: "It's the joy of learning, being able to struggle with what's not easy in order to because fluent and to become confident and the really understand: that's joyous – kids love to have that confidence."
To show that he practices what he preaches, Secretary Duncan told NCTE interviewers that he and his wife "just