It keeps me looking at both sides. Gibboney may have a somewhat jaundiced view of the current state of education, but educators don't necessarily have a jaundiced view of him. In 1969, Gibboney won Penn's Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, a prestigious honor bestowed by a University-wide committee. Still, Gibboney realizes that he's not going to win many kudos from those who think learning by rote is a good thing. Schools take subjects apart.
History becomes all dates.
This is a mechanistic approach to history, not an interesting story or an unfolding narrative, which is what it should be. It becomes a series of disconnected Northwest Ordinances of 1787 and all those memorized facts. The best schools, Gibboney believes, rely not on textbooks, but on great school libraries. The best classes mix disciplines and allow students to apply subjects in a creative fashion. As an example, Gibboney described a multidimensional course that the suburban district of Cherry Hill, N.J., could offer in which students would learn just by talking about their hometown.