Message to Members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education >>>>> Please Use Your Time Waiting for Resolution of the Holyoke (Massachusetts) Special Education Matter to Develop a Philosophy of Education

To members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education   >>>>>




As you wait now for the investigation into treatment of special education students in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where prospective Superintendent Sergio Paez has served as superintendent and now consultant, you should use this time to develop an abiding philosophy on the basis of which all of your decisions should be grounded.




Please read this article to completion and take note of recommended readings near the end of the article. 


To firm up your philosophy of education, you should read the works of commentators of differing views and decide where you stand.  As you will find at article's end, these commentators include E. D. Hirsch, William Bennett, Alfie Kohn, Howard Gardner, and Diane Ravitch.




Before you consider the works of these authors, though, please remember the following >>>>>




Remember that the vision that we should be adopting for the Minneapolis Public Schools is the following >>>>>






Teachers of highest quality shall impart an excellent, knowledge-intensive education to all students of the Minneapolis Public Schools, with the purpose of sending graduates forth to lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.




Remember also that the definition of an excellent education is as follows:







An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, grade-by-grade curriculum in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.






Remember, as well, that an excellent teacher is defined as follows:







An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.






And know that we must establish the purpose of an excellent education as follows:




The purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction




…………………………………..................


Now please read the following books in order, as given:


E. D. Hirsch, The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them (New York:  Anchor/ Doubleday, 1996 &1999)




E. D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy (New York:  Anchor/ Doubleday, 1987)




William Bennett, The Educated Child (New York:  Free Press/ Touchstone, 2000)




Diane Ravitch, A Century of Battles Over School Reform (New York:  Simon Schuster, 2001)


Alfie Kohn, The Schools Our Children Deserve (New York:  Mariner, 1999 & 2000)




Howard Gardiner,  Frames of Mind:  The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York:  Basic Books, 1983 [first edition] & 2011 [latest edition])




Reading the books by E. D. Hirsch and William Bennett will give you an understanding of advocacy for the knowledge-intensive education that I strongly favor.


Hirsch is a political liberal who argues that failure to give children of poverty and familial dysfunction a knowledge-intensive education is socially irresponsible.  Bennett uses much of Hirsch's Core Knowledge Foundation material while embracing Hirsch's argument and also advocating for a conservative position that stresses enduring knowledge over faddishness.


Reading Diane Ravitch's book will give you an understanding of education change efforts in the 20th century.  Ravitch is now a sell-out on the matter of knowledge-intensive education and is currently serving the interests of the education establishment.  But the given book, written when her views were more consistent with those of Hirsch and Bennett, is an excellent account of the history of 20th century education in the United States.


Alfie Kohn gives the so-called "progressive" view that has resulted in decidedly unprogressive consequences for our students, particularly those from families that are impoverished, dysfunctional, or residentially mobile.


Howard Gardner gives the view of "multiple intelligences" that has so gripped the fascination of the education establishment.  Gardener identifies learning modes such as cognitive, kinesthetic, and artistic that are reasonable enough but engages in hyperbole in labeling these modes as "intelligences."


My views are known to my readers and discernible in my comments above.


But read the books and let's have the discussion.


The future of our children is at stake.