Still too Rousseauian. Still too lacking in structure. Still no overt expectation of personal responsibility. American education was great when it demanded the work needed for learning. Learning is hard. It demands changing the way we think. It is uncomfortable, and needs to be. We got weak because of the coddling.
I’m interested in understanding your response. The author writes, “We harbor a tradition of inquiry and dissent, of understanding opposing viewpoints, of honoring reason and evidence over conformity…”. Do you mean to indicate that understanding opposing viewpoints too much - too many destructive kinds of opposing viewpoints as we have today, Marxist,Maoist etc.- will never work, not for long?
While I certainly agree with the overall premise, it feels like we are really overstating things by saying our educational system was so much better in the past.
I went to some very well funded and high performing schools in Maryland during the late 80s and the rule of the day was conformity in every sense of the word. Severe bullying was rampant, smart students with ADD were seen as nothing but trouble, and teachers were largely disinterested in going "off the curriculum." As a kid who loved reading and wanted to know the Why as much as the What, I was shut down and quite often insulted by teachers who wanted none of it.
There were exceptions, granted, but it was anything but a place for "critical inquiry" unless you were in one of the few AP classes. We may have turned out more math and engineering grads back then, but "independent thinking" was not part of the equation...
The focus on foundations is right. But we’re ignoring what the data actually shows about catching up: reading trajectories are largely set by first grade.
It’s not just the loss of foundation. It’s that we lie about it while kids fall further behind.
Childhood is not a mental illness. Start there. We love mental illness more than we love learning; so K-12 education has been captured by the psycho-therapeutic paradigm of childhood.
1. Send the parents back to school and teach them to read. Then force them to read to their kids from a young age. It's the parents who are stupid now, not the kids.
2. Provide obligatory courses that offer alternatives to Evangelical Christian dogma. For instance, such a course might ask the students "What objective evidence do we possess that might prove or disprove the proposition that our coastal cities are inhabited by the demonic spawn of Satan."
We need phonics, math learned by drilling, and focus on learning facts. No more emotional learning programs. Kids need recess, unstructured time, no screens. We know what we need to do, now we need to do it.
“Instead of encouraging students to ask questions and explore ideas for themselves, students are handed ready-made ideological dogma. They are discouraged from thinking, shamed for questioning, and no longer taught how to engage in effective discussions.”
How does this work? I’m trying to imagine what this looks like in the classroom, and I taught high school for 15 years. The system obviously needs to an overhaul, not to understate it too much.
Parents have been forced to regurgitate approved opinions too. This must also change. Parents are not allowed to question. If we ask questions or resist ideological dogma, we are shamed, shunned, cancelled, threatened and targeted with scare tactics to make us compliant.
So good, Karen, thank you! We moved to Montgomery, AL last summer from Fairfax, VA and were initially concerned with what public school options would be available here, especially given the stellar reputation of the Fairfax Public School System that we were leaving.
Luckily for us we were able to enroll both our kiddos, Kindergarten and 2nd Grade, into Ivy Classical Academy, a new free charter school here in its first year of existence that was part of Hillsdale College's foray into supporting public education.
Our experience at Ivy Classical was, in short, phenomenal!
Every month of the school year was dedicated to exploring one of the classic virtues (Awe, Wonder, Justice, Compassion..) and students were acknowledged in weekly assemblies for demonstrating acts of the these virtues all year long.
Additionally, the school's credo of "I will learn the True, I will do the Good, and will love the Beautiful" centers those "Big 3" value spheres right at the core of the school's mission.
I share this with you here in support of your larger call to reorient to the time-tested values of cultivating virtue, building character, and promoting literacy and numeracy as the true purpose of education.
Wishing you continued success in all your efforts there in TN!
Still too Rousseauian. Still too lacking in structure. Still no overt expectation of personal responsibility. American education was great when it demanded the work needed for learning. Learning is hard. It demands changing the way we think. It is uncomfortable, and needs to be. We got weak because of the coddling.
I’m interested in understanding your response. The author writes, “We harbor a tradition of inquiry and dissent, of understanding opposing viewpoints, of honoring reason and evidence over conformity…”. Do you mean to indicate that understanding opposing viewpoints too much - too many destructive kinds of opposing viewpoints as we have today, Marxist,Maoist etc.- will never work, not for long?
I post this poem for every teacher I encounter online:
https://youtu.be/RGKm201n-U4
Taylor Mali : What Teachers Make
While I certainly agree with the overall premise, it feels like we are really overstating things by saying our educational system was so much better in the past.
I went to some very well funded and high performing schools in Maryland during the late 80s and the rule of the day was conformity in every sense of the word. Severe bullying was rampant, smart students with ADD were seen as nothing but trouble, and teachers were largely disinterested in going "off the curriculum." As a kid who loved reading and wanted to know the Why as much as the What, I was shut down and quite often insulted by teachers who wanted none of it.
There were exceptions, granted, but it was anything but a place for "critical inquiry" unless you were in one of the few AP classes. We may have turned out more math and engineering grads back then, but "independent thinking" was not part of the equation...
The focus on foundations is right. But we’re ignoring what the data actually shows about catching up: reading trajectories are largely set by first grade.
It’s not just the loss of foundation. It’s that we lie about it while kids fall further behind.
👉eddiegunn.substack.com/p/the-reading-gap-no-one-will-name
Childhood is not a mental illness. Start there. We love mental illness more than we love learning; so K-12 education has been captured by the psycho-therapeutic paradigm of childhood.
I have an even better idea. Two ideas, in fact.
1. Send the parents back to school and teach them to read. Then force them to read to their kids from a young age. It's the parents who are stupid now, not the kids.
2. Provide obligatory courses that offer alternatives to Evangelical Christian dogma. For instance, such a course might ask the students "What objective evidence do we possess that might prove or disprove the proposition that our coastal cities are inhabited by the demonic spawn of Satan."
We need phonics, math learned by drilling, and focus on learning facts. No more emotional learning programs. Kids need recess, unstructured time, no screens. We know what we need to do, now we need to do it.
“Instead of encouraging students to ask questions and explore ideas for themselves, students are handed ready-made ideological dogma. They are discouraged from thinking, shamed for questioning, and no longer taught how to engage in effective discussions.”
How does this work? I’m trying to imagine what this looks like in the classroom, and I taught high school for 15 years. The system obviously needs to an overhaul, not to understate it too much.
Parents have been forced to regurgitate approved opinions too. This must also change. Parents are not allowed to question. If we ask questions or resist ideological dogma, we are shamed, shunned, cancelled, threatened and targeted with scare tactics to make us compliant.
Well said!
So good, Karen, thank you! We moved to Montgomery, AL last summer from Fairfax, VA and were initially concerned with what public school options would be available here, especially given the stellar reputation of the Fairfax Public School System that we were leaving.
Luckily for us we were able to enroll both our kiddos, Kindergarten and 2nd Grade, into Ivy Classical Academy, a new free charter school here in its first year of existence that was part of Hillsdale College's foray into supporting public education.
Our experience at Ivy Classical was, in short, phenomenal!
Every month of the school year was dedicated to exploring one of the classic virtues (Awe, Wonder, Justice, Compassion..) and students were acknowledged in weekly assemblies for demonstrating acts of the these virtues all year long.
Additionally, the school's credo of "I will learn the True, I will do the Good, and will love the Beautiful" centers those "Big 3" value spheres right at the core of the school's mission.
I share this with you here in support of your larger call to reorient to the time-tested values of cultivating virtue, building character, and promoting literacy and numeracy as the true purpose of education.
Wishing you continued success in all your efforts there in TN!