2007 July Archive at The Core Knowledge Blog

Why teaching facts is more fair than teaching “critical thinking.” A commentary by Scott Hurban.

If anyone wants to understand the general decline in academic education, especially among the urban poor, I recommend, “The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them,” by E.D. Hirsch. It is a researched indictment of teacher training during the past 50 years.

… Teachers are taught that the accumulation of knowledge is happening at such a frightening pace that it is futile to emphasize facts, since facts will become obsolete over a short time. It is better to teach students “critical thinking” skills so they can analyze the changes and become “lifelong learners.” Teachers are to emphasize process and pedagogy, instead of factual content.

Teachers are taught that learning is natural and that forcing students to learn what they don’t want is detrimental to a child’s natural curiosity. Teachers are to be “facilitators” and not “drill instructors.”

The outcome of these high sounding ideas is the destruction of egalitarianism (equal opportunity) for the urban poor and socially disadvantaged.

Read the entire essay

44% of Schools Polled Reduce Other Topics

By Jay Mathews, Washington Post Staff Writer

In the five years since a federal law mandated an expansion of reading and math tests, 44 percent of school districts nationwide have made deep cutbacks in social studies, science, art and music lessons in elementary grades and have even slashed lunchtime, a new survey has found.

The most detailed look at the rapidly changing American school day, in a report released today, found that most districts sharply increased time spent on reading and math.

… But Andrew J. Rotherham, a co-founder of the Education Sector think tank in the District who serves on the Virginia Board of Education, likened the increased hours spent in reading instruction, devoid of history and science, to a diet full of empty calories. “If you have just doughnuts for breakfast, you will be hungry again soon,” he said. “But a balanced breakfast can carry you to lunch.”

He cited the work of University of Virginia researcher E.D. Hirsch Jr., who has said elementary students need exposure to history and science to be able to handle the concepts and vocabulary that make them good readers.

Read the complete article