I recently read a fantastic article in the Washington Post by Marion Brady that made the unlikely, but very effective, comparison between education in America today and dogs. From the article:
It isn’t that many different breeds can’t be taught to herd, lead high-altitude rescue efforts, or kill foxes. They can. It’s just that teaching all dogs to do things which one particular breed can do better than any other doesn’t make much sense.
We accept the reasonableness of that argument for dogs. We reject it for kids.
The non-educators now running the education show say American kids are lagging ever-farther behind in science and math, and that the consequences of that for America’s economic well-being could be catastrophic.
So, what is this rich, advantaged country of ours doing to try to beat out the competition? Mainly, we put in place the No Child Left Behind program, now replaced by Race to the Top and the Common Core State Standards Initiative. If that fact makes you optimistic about the future of education in America, think again about dogs.
The article is a must read that represents why the current thinking on "reform" by narrowing the curriculum is, in my opinion, wrong.
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