Ideas Matter

I've recently started receiving Peter Nilsson's terrific Educator's Notebook newsletter. In fact, I subscribe to it and receive it weekly in my. Check it out. It's amazing.

In progressive circles, E.D. Hirch's work on Cultural Literacy is broadly maligned. So I admit to be very interested in seeing Nilsson highlight an article of appreciation of Hirsch's work called, On The Importance Of Knowledge (Via E. D. Hirsch) by Daniel Willingham.

Willingham writes that Hirsch has an undeserved reputation of an ultra-conservative. In fact, Willingham suggests that many critics opposed Hirsch because he was apparently advocating that school children spend most of their time memorizing the names of dead white males. 

Hirch's more informed critics never accused Hirsch of advocating for mindless memorization. Instead, they objected to his Eurocentric, male-centric view of history. Hirsch was fully aware the political climate in which he was writing. There's a reason why the National Review considers Hirsch a hero. https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/02/educational-reformer-hirsch-promotes-knowledge/. Was he really an innocent pawn in the culture wars? Some traditionalists in the field of education consider him a hero for emphasizing facts over skills. 

Yet, I'll point out Hirsch was a life-long democrat. I'll also point out that in this increasingly fractious nation, the notion that we need some form of civitas, a shared sense of Americanness, based upon common ideas and ideals resonates with me. Because the alternative is tribalism. Ideas matter and so do the lack of ideas. An uninformed citizenry should worry us. If we don't default to ideals and ideas, we will default to race.

Additionally, good primary and secondary teachers of the progressive ilk- I consider constructivists to be "progressive" - would agree with Hirsch that schema matters. Of course we have to know things. It is how we scaffold knowledge. It is how we make meaning. I certainly do not believe in the teaching of facts for their own sake. For outside of context, they are meaningless.  

Those who promote creativity and collaboration and diminish the importance of content forget that one needs to know things, skills and concepts in order to be creative. This shouldn't be an ideological debate. Of course content matters

My consistent critique of traditional models of education is that we teach content in isolation. We fetishize it. Sometimes it seems we have Gradgrindian emphasis on facts above all else. (Referencing Mr. Gradgrind proves Hirsch's point?)  We don't let kids develop collaborative skills and creative skills and communication skills.  In the past, I've advocated for teachers to take an inventory of their tests to see how many questions simply ask for recall. I've argued that most test questions given in most schools ask these kinds of questions. 

I'll end by returning to Hirsch's cultural argument; in this current political climate in the USA, those who are "woke" need reminding that the most effective challengers to the American political establishment have always been those who have clothed their criticisms within an American framework, hearkening back to ideals established in the Declaration and Constitution.  "Four score and eighty years ago...." Lincoln grounded his cause in the Declaration. 

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of his assassination, take a look at how Dr. King in part grounded his cause in the Constitution and used American ideals- our common, foundational ideals, as he spoke to the black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama.

And we are not wrong; we are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong.  If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong.  If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. 

Knowing stuff matters. Knowing how to use it matters more. 

Here's the speech.