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