A Classical Education: Back to the Future

[elleng]

Ravitch’s recommendations are simple, commonsensical and entirely consonant with the views of Boitins and Nussbaum. Begin with “a well conceived, coherent, sequential curriculum,” and then “adjust other parts of the education system to support the goals of learning.” This will produce a “foundation of knowledge and skills that grows stronger each year.” Forget about the latest fad and quick-fix, and buckle down to the time-honored, traditional “study and practice of the liberal arts and sciences: history, literature, geography, the sciences, civics mathematics, the arts and foreign languages.”

In short, get knowledgeable and well-trained teachers, equip them with a carefully calibrated curriculum and a syllabus filled with challenging texts and materials, and put them in a room with students who are told where they are going and how they are going to get there.

Worked for me.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/a-classical-education-back-to-the-future/

[enlightenment]

1. That's my idea of education heaven . . .

Thank you for posting this!

[Turbineguy]

2. Bingo!

Of course there will be dissent. It would undo the work of Reaganites who think we should be ignorant automatons, trained to work and consume.

[Golden Raisin]

3. Beautiful dream

but the tragic reality is that the Power Elite that runs this country wants an uneducated electorate, kept in debt, fearful of losing their jobs/homes and because of their poor education, unaware when their Constitutional rights are diluted or taken away. When I look back on the High School education I received in the 1960s and then see what passes today for a High School education for my grandnieces/nephews I don't know whether to rage or cry. Sadly we live in a country run by people who will piss endless trillions into a blackhole of permanent foreign wars but starve and reduce budgets for education, and in Texas, rewrite History.

[mbperrin]

4. This is why we studied cathedral construction and other great topics

when I was in high school here in the late 60s. We attended live Shakespearean productions put on here in a replica of the Globe Theater; we attended an annual Jazz Festival hosted by the biggest bootlegger in the area; we studied 4 years of Latin and put on a huge banquet in costume and reclining with entertainment from 1st year students, and a whole lot more.

Now we teach strategies to succeed on multiple choice tests.