Where my book breaks new ground, Ravitch tells Insight, is that it is a different telling of American educational history. The story that has always been told is of the triumph of progressivism over traditionalism. What people never got when hearing the story of traditionalism being vanquished was what it was being replaced by. Literacy and numeracy, says Ravitch. Clearly in this age they need reading, writing, math, science, history and good literature.
History is very critically important because it situates people in time.
Absent history, we are surrounded by stupidity. She tells Insight, I would ask anybody who says an academic curriculum is not important for every child what they would want for their own children. It makes me crazy when I see educational elites saying someone needs to work in unskilled labor, saying other people s children should get their garbage, unplug their toilets. They made no bones about it. Most teachers opposed these ideas.