What do
these topics from the world of knowledge have in common?
>>>>>
The nature of the Big Bang and the
approximate age (13.8 billion years) of the universe
>>>>>
The evolution of life on earth,
including rudimentary life forms, plants and animals, then the sequential
presence of Australopithecus, homo habilis, and homo erectus, culminating in the appearance of about 100,000 years
ago
>>>>>
The anthropological distinction between
culture and civilization, with an ability to give salient representations of
the first of these on earth
>>>>>
Major historical events and
civilizations such as those of the Greeks and Romans; Qin and Han Dynasty China; the pre-Mughal and Mughal empires of India;
the great west African empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai; the key actors and ideas of the Renaissance,
Reformation, and Enlightenment
>>>>>
The difference in the terms Christian,
Protestant and Roman Catholic
>>>>>
The ways in which Judaism gave rise to
Christianity and Hinduism gave rise to Buddhism
>>>>>
The historical and current differences
between Shiite and Sunni Muslims
>>>>>
The historical currents of West Asia
and Central Asia, with specific reference to the nations of Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan
>>>>>
The essential difference in the physics
of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein
>>>>>
The difference in the psychological
theories and research of Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner
>>>>>
The difference between federal deficit
and debt; the structure of the U. S.
federal budget; how the latter involves
fiscal policy, while the Chair Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve Board of
Governors determine monetary policy, largely independent of the executive and
legislative branches
>>>>> How
the Electoral College works
>>>>>
The many complex and nuanced meanings
of such terms as liberal, conservative, and communist
The answer
to the questions, “What do these topics from the world of knowledge have in
common?,”
could be
many; my emphasis here is that my
students in the New Salem Educational Initiative come to me from the
Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) inevitably with little information on any of
these topics. When we read serious
magazine, newspaper, and journal articles;
or train to take the ACT; I have
to take great amounts of time teaching mini-courses because my students have
learned so little in the abysmal MPS schools.
The
Culturally Responsive Teaching emphasized by MPS Teaching and Learning Director
Macarre Traynham; and the Social and
Emotional Learning stressed by new Superintendent Ed Graff are not ever going
to address the sort of knowledge-deficiency exhibited by the students of the
Minneapolis Public Schools.
We should by
all means train our teachers to be culturally knowledgeable and
responsive; and nurture our precious
young people to internalize self and mutual respect.
But then the
goal of an excellent education should be the impartation of vast reams of
knowledge so that students go forth to lives of cultural enrichment, civic
preparation, and professional satisfaction.
Both of my
nearly complete books, Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts
Education; and
Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:
Current Condition, Future Prospect, are written in response to
the terrible quality of education delivered by the Minneapolis Public Schools.
The first
book provides the liberal arts portion (economics, political science,
psychology, world religions, world history, American history, African American
history, literature, fine arts, English usage, mathematics, biology, chemistry,
and physics) of an excellent education that should across the K-12 years also
include the technological and vocational arts.
The second
exposes the failure of the Minneapolis Public Schools to deliver such an
education and provides the philosophical and organizational underpinning that
will be necessary to do so.
What is at
stake is our ability to deliver a favorable answer to another vital question:
Will our
nation ever be the democracy that we imagine ourselves to be?
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