The Core Knowledge Blog

For over two decades almost every constituency has attacked public education. The last seven years have been particularly demoralizing, characterized by federal and state governments’ atomizing curriculum and then judging the success of individual schools by tests which may or may not provide accurate, useful information.

We frequently hear that the purpose of schools is to prepare students for high paying jobs or to continue their education after high school, both worthy goals, but are they the primary purposes of our educational system? Preparing students for the work force reduces them to a commodity for sale to the highest bidder. This goal equates being the greatest nation in the world with being the richest. What about quality of life? How can the greatest nation in the world have children who go to bed hungry every night?

The second purpose, preparation for higher education, is more defensible, but even here we can become obsessive in our need to be number one in the world. I know many people without college educations. They do, however, have meaningful work, fulfilled lives, and adequate resources. A closer look would seem to connect this second purpose of education with the first. Higher levels of education lead to higher paying jobs, more consumerism, and technological and military advantages over others. I believe we define being number one as having superior wealth, power, and dominance. We have forgotten the real purpose of America’s schools.

America is the world’s greatest experiment in democracy. We created ourselves out of the idea of people from anywhere on the globe coming to live together in a self-governing representative democracy. The only way such an idea could succeed would be through the common element of the schools, insuring that each citizen had the knowledge and skills to participate meaningfully and peacefully in this endeavor. Therefore, regardless of the type or focus of any particular school curriculum, that curriculum must serve the common primary purpose of preparing citizens for meaningful involvement in a democracy.

The four aspects of this purpose, which precede any thought of curriculum, are kindness, thinking, problem solving, and communications. These four should be part of every class in every grade every day. They are not add-ons. We must embed them in everything we teach, developing individuals ready to function in our democracy.

Maps showing red and blue states sadden me, reflecting our increasingly polarized society. Red and blue states indicate the lack of an open exchange of ideas. A debate should not consist merely of each side presenting its position. In a productive political debate, each side should present its position, carefully critique the other’s, and together derive a third position which comprises the best of the other two. Instead, we go in with our minds made up.

Kindness would allow us to accept one another without prejudging. We would listen not just respectfully, but intently. We need to care about everyone, not just ourselves. Each person can contribute to the conversation. However, if a student fears ridicule for his answer, or his beliefs, or her background, then that student is unlikely to develop the habit of speaking up. Kindness allows us to give and take honest critique without offense, in the pursuit of the best solution for everyone. No child could go to bed hungry in the richest nation on earth if that nation practiced kindness.

Next we must teach thinking. Every time a student gives an answer, that student should have to justify the chain of reasoning that gave rise to that answer. Other students should be ready to challenge the response with regard to its logic, unanticipated consequences, and practicality. If we do not teach students how to think logically and thoroughly, we will continue to operate in a political world of sound bites and emotional rhetoric. Thinking then naturally leads to problem solving.

What good is all of our work if we cannot communicate with one another and with the rest of the world? We will have to express ourselves and understand others in many ways, including social language, technical language, body language, mathematical language, customs, and cultural habits to name but a few.

In a democracy people come together to discuss issues and develop solutions which will be in everyone’s best interest. These four cornerstones of a curriculum for democracy should be our first priority. We can create climates of kindness in our schools. We can regularly ask students to examine their and others’ thinking. Many assignments are actually problems to solve, such as asking a student to write an essay within specific parameters. Then, we should be able to express ourselves and understand others. We must not allow our democracy to lose its soul.

For a fuller discussion of these ideas, one can see my recent book, Curriculum on the Edge of Survival, published by Rowman and Littlefield.