Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I teach in an inner-city school, and for the past 30 years, I have regularly taught my students who Socrates was, how he died and for what reason, whom he taught (Plato), whom Plato taught (Aristotle), and whom Aristotle taught (Alexander the Great). I teach about Martin Luther and his 95 theses and Martin Luther King Jr.'s practice of civil disobedience as modeled by Henry David Thoreau and Gandhi. I also throw in binary numbers, factorials, and imaginary numbers from time to time, along with dialectical materialism, Orwell's 1984, and John Locke's tabula rasa. Most of this I learned from my high school government teacher, who inspired me to teach students as opposed to teaching a curriculum.
The author of this column is absolutely correct when he says that the system has changed from one of education and enlightenment to one bereft of the transmission of knowledge in favor of testing (testing, testing) isolated skills. No longer are students guided through classic literature in search of universal truths. Now, if they study literature at all, it is in search of the author's purpose, as testing in the ubiquitous Pearson texts and tests. The goal is now to teach a content-free curriculum and the result is content-free students going off to college not even knowing what they don't know.
As I learned from Socrates, the wise man knows he is a fool. The unexamined life is not worth living.
Cry me a river. This post and the article it references are nothing more than the laments of educational conservatives who think that requiring a student to maintain a mental compendium of obscure historical facts and being able to conjugate some Latin verbs equates to "learning". It doesn't. I graduated from high school in 1968, and guess what, most of my classmates didn't know who Socrates was or why he died or hundreds of other historical facts that they forgot as soon as they got out of the history class that required them. The only reason I remembered those facts is because I happen to have a brain that's wired for remembering trivia. I can name all the POTUS in order. I can name all the states and their state capitals. At one time, I could name all the winners of the Kentucky Derby since 1875. I can still name all the American Triple Crown winners. As I said, trivia: the collection of useless facts.
It's much more important for students to learn to think critically, to analyze hows and whys, to be able to organize their thoughts into an understandable whole, and to write that whole down in an understandable way than it is about learning "facts" just to say they know them. I want a student to understand the difference between fact and opinion, to be able to find and evaluate source of information, to draw conclusions based on research and be able to defend those conclusions with factual evidence. Those are much more useful skills than being able to regurgitate what some consider "universal truths".
The author of this column is absolutely correct when he says that the system has changed from one of education and enlightenment to one bereft of the transmission of knowledge in favor of testing (testing, testing) isolated skills. No longer are students guided through classic literature in search of universal truths. Now, if they study literature at all, it is in search of the author's purpose, as testing in the ubiquitous Pearson texts and tests. The goal is now to teach a content-free curriculum and the result is content-free students going off to college not even knowing what they don't know.
What universal truths? And what do you mean by content-free?
What universal truths? And what do you mean by content-free?
A lot of examining literature now is to do four things based on the FAT Pig. Telling what the Format, Audience, Topic and Purpose are for the piece, not necessarily interpreting and expanding on the author's writing.
That's not an article. It's just a personal monologue with a bunch of unsupported musings and fancy vocabulary. I'm not even sure there was a point to it. Classical history hasn't been taught in so long that even I can't answer most of his questions, and I'm old and have a stellar educational resume. Even American history, the only thing we are likely to learn at all, has almost always been reduced to 2 wars and a bunch of names and dates that are pretty much meaningless to us.
But ask them some basic questions about the civilization they will be inheriting, and be prepared for averted eyes and somewhat panicked looks. Who fought in the Peloponnesian War? Who taught Plato, and whom did Plato teach? How did Socrates die? Raise your hand if you have read both the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Canterbury Tales? Paradise Lost? The Inferno?
Who was Saul of Tarsus? What were the 95 theses, who wrote them, and what was their effect? Why does the Magna Carta matter? How and where did Thomas Becket die? Who was Guy Fawkes, and why is there a day named after him? What did Lincoln say in his Second Inaugural? His first Inaugural? How about his third Inaugural? What are the Federalist Papers?
The article is BS. This is the same-old, same-old that every older generation spews. The professor must be a Boomer, about to retire, because I and my Gen-X friends never studied that stuff, so he's not from our generation, unless he chose to specialize in the "classics". News Flash, prof: the world has moved on from the Classics! Nowadays there's global commerce, global information, global conflicts (not centered exclusively on Europe and Japan, as in an earlier era), there's terrorism, advanced computer tech to manage all the above. And global cultural knowledge is needed to help make everything work: an understanding of diversity abroad as well as diversity at home. There's global climate change to deal with in the sciences, affecting global economics and global politics. We need people with a broad vision and a multi-disciplinary approach to problem-solving.
And you're complaining that kids don't really know what diversity is? Give them a break, they only just got out of highschool. If they get a good 4-year education, they should have a clue, as long as you don't require them to spend all their time learning about the Peloponnesian War, and reading Ovid or the Canterbury Tales.
A good article I fully agree with. It is fairly short but makes a lot of great points and sadly is so very true.
Not really, he asks:
Who was Saul of Tarsus? What were the 95 theses, who wrote them, and what was their effect? Why does the Magna Carta matter? How and where did Thomas Becket die? Who was Guy Fawkes, and why is there a day named after him? What did Lincoln say in his Second Inaugural? His first Inaugural? How about his third Inaugural? What are the Federalist Papers?
Saul was later to be come Paul (Major Saint in the Bible)
95 theses who wrote them...Don't know....
Effect? Don't know, should I?
Magna Carta (Established rules of law for non royalty/My memory is probably off)
Thomas Becket..Who?
Guy Fawkes...heard the name, no knowledge of what he did or was or why there's a day named after him.
Lincoln 1st, 2nd and any inaugural (Sorry, not into Lincoln history)
Federalist Papers...Writings about the laws of this country...(My guess)
That's not the question. The question is, "How is this extraneous learning impacting your staying aligned with the pacing guide?".
Fortunately, as a foreign language teacher, I have no pacing guide, nor even a proper curriculum. That gives me the freedom to stir in extraneous bits from other disciplines. Now that the tested subjects have pacing guides that don't allow them any wiggle room, I try to ensure that my students are exposed to topics which will help them form a vision of the world which will allow them to think for themselves.
As far as political correctness goes, I have successfully flown under the radar so far. Now that I have reached the WTF years of retirement eligibility, I don't really care about whether what I teach is politically correct or not. I teach my students to question authority, just as Socrates did. Knowing what happened to him as a result is also among the useless facts that I teach. A cup of hemlock, anyone?
Cry me a river. This post and the article it references are nothing more than the laments of educational conservatives who think that requiring a student to maintain a mental compendium of obscure historical facts and being able to conjugate some Latin verbs equates to "learning". It doesn't. I graduated from high school in 1968, and guess what, most of my classmates didn't know who Socrates was or why he died or hundreds of other historical facts that they forgot as soon as they got out of the history class that required them. The only reason I remembered those facts is because I happen to have a brain that's wired for remembering trivia. I can name all the POTUS in order. I can name all the states and their state capitals. At one time, I could name all the winners of the Kentucky Derby since 1875. I can still name all the American Triple Crown winners. As I said, trivia: the collection of useless facts.
It's much more important for students to learn to think critically, to analyze hows and whys, to be able to organize their thoughts into an understandable whole, and to write that whole down in an understandable way than it is about learning "facts" just to say they know them. I want a student to understand the difference between fact and opinion, to be able to find and evaluate source of information, to draw conclusions based on research and be able to defend those conclusions with factual evidence. Those are much more useful skills than being able to regurgitate what some consider "universal truths".
Did I somehow imply that it is unimportant for people to be able to think critically? On the contrary, if one knows no facts, then one cannot think critically, as critical thinking requires something to think about.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The only reason I remembered those facts is because I happen to have a brain that's wired for remembering trivia. I can name all the POTUS in order. I can name all the states and their state capitals. At one time, I could name all the winners of the Kentucky Derby since 1875. I can still name all the American Triple Crown winners. As I said, trivia: the collection of useless facts.
