And, generally speaking, the more well-stocked your mind is, the better able you are to make the connections that are basic to thinking. If, on the other hand, you lack the necessary information, what you read will be meaningless. Most Americans who have tried to read a story about cricket in an English newspaper will understand this point. As for the notion that teaching children content will turn them off learning, anybody who has seen the delight with which kids master the facts about dinosaurs or baseball teams or Egyptian mummies knows that is not the case. Hirsch concedes that focusing on content and guiding children in learning how to use what they know are not necessarily easy.
Teachers have detailed knowledge of the subject matter they teach.
There is an agreed-on core of knowledge and skills that children are expected to learn in each grade, so that knowledge can build on knowledge and teachers can be sure of what their students have already learned. Because the goals are specific, students can be monitored and helped when they need it, and parents can know exactly what their children are learning. They seem to have forgotten that if you do worse, you should try something else. E.D. Hirsch's penetrating discussion of why the progressive experiment has failed won't win any applause from those who want more of the same, but the rest of us should be grateful for The Schools We Need . All rights reserved.