The Core Knowledge Blog

Fordham’s Mike Petrilli weighs in on the Core Knowledge reading program announcement.  So does Richard Whitmire.  Elissa Gootman’s longer piece in yesterday’s NY Times even manages to elicit warm words from Lucy Calkins.  But especially welcome is Richard Lee Colvin’s entry at Early Stories, which concludes

“Journalists might look into pre-kindergarten programs or elementary schools in their area that are using the Core Knowledge approach.  Are the kids bored? Do their heads hurt?” 

If anyone wishes to take up Colvin’s suggestion, a complete list of Core Knowledge Schools can be found here.  Such a visit would help counter the nonsense peddled for years by Alfie Kohn, for example, that Core Knowledge is merely a bunch o’ facts that “steal time from more meaningful objectives.”

Indeed, too many people in education still carry around the idea that reading is a content-neutral skill, and don’t appreciate the connection between background knowledge and reading comprehension.  There is an assumption on the part of many teachers that the ability to decode and to apply metacognitive “reading strategies” is enough to make any text comprehensible.  Isn’t it pretty to think so?

Over the next couple of days, UVA cognitive scientist Dan Willingham and Matt Davis, who heads the Core Knowledge Reading Program will weigh in here on reading.  Stay tuned.