Hosted by
The Center for Education Reform
Hosted by
The Center for Education Reform
WHY WE DON'T HAVE THE SCHOOLS WE NEED
by Bruno V. Manno
The Indianapolis Star, October 26, 1996
The Schools We Need & Why We Don't Have Them
Author: E.D. Hirsch Jr.
Publisher: Doubleday
Price: $ 24.95
Why are the nation's young people not learning nearly enough for their own or the nation's good? What must be done to solve this achievement problem?
In The Schools We Need & Why We Don't Have Them, E.D. Hirsch Jr., best-selling author of Cultural Literacy and editor of the Core Knowledge Series, offers a penetrating and compelling analysis of how, despite the good intentions of educators, bad ideas and failed theories now characterize American education, making it among the worst in the developed world.
Hirsch notes as the single most influential cause of this failure a set of ideas, an educational philosophy, rooted in the 1920s and '30s.
This philosophy's chief exponents were progressive education "experts" based mostly at Columbia University Teachers College in New York.
These "experts" and their "romantic progressivism" called for either down-playing or eliminating a knowledge- or content-based curriculum. In its place, they have created a process-oriented curriculum emphasizing individual learning styles, multiple intelligences and the acquisition of higher order thinking skills.
For a progressive, how one learns takes precedence over what one learns.
Hirsch quotes two modern adherents of this approach to show the logical outcome of this viewpoint: "Process is in fact the highest form of content. "
Anyone who has attended a parent- teacher conference can attest to how this progressive approach is taken for granted in schools, often contrasted with a focus on "the basics" or "only facts. " While deeply ingrained in the training approaches that permeate the nation's education schools, progressivism is not supported by any serious research or evaluation.
In a masterful chapter entitled "Reality's Revenge," Hirsch shows how progressivism's approach to evidence is highly selective.
And in a plain but penetrating comment, he summarizes this situation, "Our educational failures reflect reality's revenge over inadequate ideas. "
Once again, the emperor is shown to have no clothes.
Moreover, the progressive perspective assumes a "learning-is- easy-and-joyful" approach.
Hirsch contrasts that model with what he calls the "accomplish-through-diligence" model.
Hirsch's solutions are commonsensical, reflecting what he calls the perspective of an "educational pragmatist. " His comprehensive reform plan includes a core curriculum; hard work and rigorous testing; accepting the fact that "learning is cumulative;" more diversity of thought and opinion in education schools that train teachers; grade-by-grade accountability and incentives for parents, students and educators at all levels; and more choices of schools for students and parents.
This book is sure to gore a number of sacred cows in what Hirsch calls education's "thoughtworld," a realm in need of some serious goring.
The book is a thoroughly researched and readable set of alternative ideas for solving the achievement problem faced by our nation's students as they prepare to live, work and compete successfully in the 21st century.
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Bruno V. Manno is senior fellow in the Washington, D.C., office of Indianaplis-based Hudson Institute.