I read a blog post by Roger Schank titled, “Education Outrage: exposure, cultural literacy and other myths of modern schooling: a response.”  As a happenstance, I also had a conversation with a good friend of mine who was concerned about a student who is spending an imbalanced amount of time learning to dance rather than studying “real” subjects, like science, social studies, literature, etc.  Are the subjects covered in today’s proficiency testing, graduation testing, and college entrance testing really essential core knowledge?

The two inputs above forced me to contemplate more deeply about what we teach our children and why we teach them the content currently selected by school systems.  Mr. Schank makes the point, “We need to teach thinking and get away from the idea of ‘important subjects.’  There aren’t any really.”  Do you agree or disagree?

One can easily argue that exposure to a wide variety of topics is good for understanding of today’s global society, for understanding cause and effect for economics, world-changing policies, and other global concerns etc. However, the U.S. has long used a broad approach to education, particularly secondary education, and yet we are falling further behind the world in academic achievement each year. Why? Could it be that we are spreading our expectations of every student too thin?

Mr. Schank makes the argument there are “no important subjects” and I tend to agree with him when I think about the above mentioned child who wants to become a professional dancer.  How important is it for a professional dancer to know Chemistry?  Algebra?  American Government? Presuming there are “important subjects” means that people will attempt to make lists of what is important, and the lists dictate teaching and testing for essential core knowledge, which may not be essential to any individual at all.  “‘One size fits all’ is a very old idea for education and one that is very convenient for governments, book publishers and test makers,” says Mr. Schank.

The jist of Mr. Schank’s article is that the body of possible subjects one can teach today is immense.  The majority of people are not at all interested in many of the required subjects.  At a minimum, virtually no student is highly interested in every subject.  Unless educational exposure to a particular subject is of immediate interest to an individual, the information covered in forced studies is likely to be rapidly forgotten.

Think about your own primary and secondary educational training.  How much of the factual information can you recall off the top of your head, particularly in those subjects you disliked?  If you are like almost everyone else, you will be able to recall very few facts about any given subject, particularly those which you didn’t like at all. Unless you were interested in the subject, what you learned at the time has long-since disappeared into the deep recesses of your mind.

Also as time proceeds, the body of possible historical, literary, scientific, and technological information grows exponentially making it more difficult to cover all ‘important’ topics in the span of typical schooling.  As adults, so much of what we need to know now is easily looked up through a wide variety of resources.  The real question then becomes, is it necessary for every student to learn everything deemed to be ‘important’, or is it more important for a student to be able to find, understand, and use information he needs at the time he is seeking the information?

I believe our children will fare much better educationally and functionally if we focus heavily on teaching essential educational skills which include:

• reading decoding,
• reading comprehension,
• written expression,
• oral communication,
• mathematical computation,
• financial management, and
• research skills.

Given a strong foundation in these essential skill areas, a child can teach his self anything through reading, research, and communicating with others to find out what he needs to know.  Focusing on core educational essentials would be like Vince Lombardi’s approach to revitalizing the Green Bay Packers by returning to the basics in order to become a great football team.  “Gentlemen, THIS is a football,” said Coach Lombardi in his focus on becoming the best by mastering the basics.

In the future, our students need to be well-equipped, life-long learners and explorers who can teach themselves whatever they need to know at any given moment.  We can accomplish this by helping every student master the basics.  If schools focus on excellence in the core academic skills to the point of mastery for every student, those who have mastered the core skills can move into advanced research and self-teaching as fast as they are able in areas suitable to their talents and interests.

Rather than cramming chemistry down the throat of a child who loves literature, why not let the literature-loving child focus on writing, reading, journalism or other topics in her line of interest?  Rather than cramming Shakespeare studies down the throats of children who have a passion for math and science, shouldn’t we let our future scientists study and conduct experiments from the earliest point possible in their education?  We can teach literature to students who love science by letting them study the (auto)biographies of great scientists.  We can help students who love literature understand basic principles of Chemistry through generalized science exploration, but the literature-focused student does not need to know how to solve chemical equations.  By letting our students focus on their areas of learning passion, they will learn more and retain better than they ever will when being forced to study topics of no interest (nor future use) to them whatsoever.

By rethinking educational provisioning for today’s society we can provide meaningful educational experiences for all children.  Studying the “full” body of known knowledge was a goal hundreds of years ago when schools were first formed and the body of knowledge was much smaller.  Two hundred years ago, knowing everything possible enabled a learned-person to become a great explorer in his time.  However, today’s great explorers are those who are consumed by focused study of limited subject areas.  The sooner we put our children on focused study paths, the more likely they are to be able to advance today’s world in understanding of any specific subject area.  If we move away from the endless study of useless facts, we can help our learners become leaders for tomorrow in their areas of passion.

What do you think?  Would we engage students with a passion for education by focusing on core academic skills in the elementary grades, and letting students venture into focused, passionate studies in grades 6-12?

Limiting belief: Every child must know everything we can teach him about everything there is to be known.

Fact: Essential education encompasses only those areas of ability required by everyday people in a wide variety of careers, such as reading, communication skills, basic math, and money management.

TO read Mr. Schank’s article, visit: http://educationoutrage.blogspot.com/2012/09/exposure-cultural-literacy-and-other.html