5 September 2005
To Achieve Equity: Rediscover the Lost Ingredient—Knowledge
“I will
liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house,
and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock.” Matthew 7:27-28
Introduction
The goal to achieve equity is not new. In 1988, the Commission on Minority
Participation in Education and American Life issued a report entitled
"One-Third of a Nation”; it stated America must embark on a twenty
year drive to close the gap between the races on income, education and other
measures of status. The report laid out
a "simple but essential" goal that in twenty years
The
"rock" our educational policies are founded upon is our educational
philosophy. We should take a look at the philosophical foundation upon which
our policies are based so that seventeen years from now, we are not left with
the same disappointing results as "One-Third of a Nation".
Over
the last 100 years there has been a dramatic change in educational philosophy;
emphasis has slowly drifted away from the primacy of knowledge toward an
emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking skills. This paper argues that like a bread recipe
that inadvertently leaves out the yeast, today's educational policy recipe that
leaves out a primary emphasis on knowledge will, despite the rising optimism of
today's educational reformers, fail to rise to the hoped for results.
The
first reaction to such an argument is likely disbelief. Don't our schools teach plenty of facts and
knowledge? And, can't our students find
any facts they want in just a matter of seconds on the computer? Besides, isn’t
the teaching of too many facts the problem?
Don't they spend too much time on "drill and kill" and rote
memorization? Don't we know that what we
need today is critical thinking skills in this information economy? In spite of all these questions, our redesign
efforts are doomed to failure unless we rediscover the importance of a
traditional knowledge-rich education.
Problem Solving
and Critical Thinking
You cannot be around education experts very long before you
hear the terms—“problem solving” and “critical thinking”. They are ubiquitous; they have subtly gained
the status of the primary goal of our educational system.
They have gained this status from the teaching and
application of Bloom's Taxonomy. Bloom's
Taxonomy is basically a hierarchy of thinking skills; it is usually illustrated
as a triangle with problem solving and critical thinking at the apex, and
knowledge, facts, and memorization, at the base. There is actually nothing wrong with Bloom's
Taxonomy; the problem comes from its misapplication. Since knowledge, facts, and memorization are
at the bottom of the triangle they have become labeled “low level skills”;
since problem solving and critical thinking are at the top of the triangle they
have become labeled “high level skills”.
It stands to reason that no one wants to work on low level skills when
you can focus on the high level skills.
Unfortunately, if there is no foundation of knowledge, facts, and
memorization, the apex will end up crashing down to the bottom.
Diagrammatically,
it looks like this:
|
|
|
|
As Conceptually
Conceived |
As Currently
Practiced |
Our
educator preparation programs and influential high school "redesigners" stress that the educational system in its
present form was developed during an age of information scarcity. They recommend that instead of memorizing
facts, students should be taught how to find, use, and apply knowledge. In this
popular view, knowledge and facts take a back seat in our schools, and now, in
the vast majority of our public schools, knowledge and facts are deemphasized. What an irony! The one institution in society whose purpose
is to dispense knowledge and facts has deemphasized this mission.
This
philosophic emphasis is also reinforced by our state testing system. The TAKS
is not an assessment of basic knowledge, as many assume it to be; it is a basic
skills test of problem solving and critical thinking. The Texas Business and Education Coalition
praises the test because it assesses our children's abstract reasoning
abilities.
The Problem with Problem Solving
Problem solving’s problem is that
it is an inadequate foundation for education. It can’t carry the load that has
been placed upon it. This overemphasis on problem solving and critical thinking
then undermines our educational efforts in four major ways.
First
and foremost, problem solving and critical thinking are knowledge dependent;
therefore, knowledge is greater. Knowledge is power. Knowledge gives us the
ability to think. Knowledge doesn’t build on thinking; but thinking builds on
knowledge. The greater one's knowledge,
the greater one's ability to problem solve.
Think
about what it takes to become a problem solver. Common sense tells us that we
solve a problem by first knowing a lot of details about the problem; then, in
our minds, we connect the relevant facts to discover a solution. Before one can
think and solve one must first have something to think about. Surgeons must be
drilled and saturated in the facts of anatomy before they problem solve with
the scalpel. Air conditioner repairmen must know the properties of Freon like
the back their hand. In fact, what makes a professional is the mastery of the language and the
facts of their profession.
In
writing and communicating, these same rules apply. Thus, to be an effective
writer or communicator you must have command of an extensive vocabulary and
know the rules of the game—grammar. The example of Winston Churchill, probably
the greatest orator of the last century, proves the point. He was considered such a dunce in high school
that he twice had to repeat English grammar. He wrote: “It was a kind of
drill. We did it almost daily. As I remained in the Third Fourth
three times as long as anyone else, and had three times as much of it, I
learned it thoroughly. Thus, I got into
my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence—which is a
noble thing." (My Early Life, Winston Churchill, p.17) Also, a large vocabulary is an excellent
example of an accumulation of knowledge. There is nothing more relevant to our
children’s success than a lot of knowledge.
Second,
this overemphasis on problem solving and critical thinking undermines the
mandate Texans have given their state legislature by our State
Constitution. The Constitution calls for
"a general diffusion of knowledge".
The original wording of the Constitution of 1876, still unchanged today,
states:
“A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the
preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of
the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the
support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”
(Article 7, Section 1)
This
idea and phrase was popular with our nation’s founding fathers. James Madison
stated: “The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of
true liberty.” In 1778, Thomas Jefferson, while a state legislator in
Third,
with the lost emphasis of “the general diffusion of knowledge”, the
constitutional purpose for providing education in the first place—“the
preservation of liberties”, is undermined.
Children need to have a reason to be in school. Today it is fashionable
to say that the purpose of education is to train the workforce of tomorrow. Our
Constitution says differently. If we
renew our commitment to what is mandated in the Constitution, we will give our
children a much better reason to be in school. Neil Postman observes that the
founder’s rationale for education is much greater than today's shortsighted
views of economic productivity. He states:
"There
was a time when American culture knew what schools were … Thomas Jefferson, the Moses of the great
democracy-god, knew what schools were for—to
ensure that citizens would know when and how to protect their liberty.
This is a man who produced an essay that could have cost him his life …. It would not have come easily to the mind of
such a man, as it does to political leaders today, that the young should be
taught to read exclusively for the purpose of increasing their economic
productivity." (The End of Education, Neil Postman, 1995,Alfred A. Knopf, p.13)
Fourth, we are losing a vital part of the
foundation for hard work. Some say that motivation for learning is not what it
was in the good old days: that today’s students are not motivated by fear and
respect for authority; they also claim that it is obsolete to motivate children
with the idea of hard work with deferred gratification. They say we need to
redesign our system to these new realities. Actually, we owe it to the
children, and society expects us to reinforce these values.
Why the willingness to give up on these
values? Is it even possible to design a successful school system where the
student does not need to work hard? Acquiring knowledge is hard work. Studying
is hard work. The lack of emphasis on knowledge philosophically supports giving
up on these values. A restoration of the importance of knowledge implies a
recommitment to hard work. Acquiring a substantial base of knowledge is the
kind of rigor that is needed today in our schools.
The Way to
Teach Problem Solving
Of course we want our students to be able to solve problems
and think clearly, therefore, how do we accomplish this? Simple, just fill our children's minds full
of knowledge and facts. A mind filled
with knowledge will, in a process that can not be described, relate those facts
in a meaningful way, ignore facts that don't apply and then build an airplane,
write a novel, design a constitutional republic, etc. How did Detective Friday solve the crimes on Dragnet? By repeating: "Just the facts ma'am."
Also, the more facts a child’s mind can effortlessly recall, the more the mind
will be free to solve problems.
Rudolf Flesch in The Art of Clear
Thinking, 1951, states "…here is your definition of thinking: It is
the manipulation of memories."(p. 8) But what are memories? Memories are
the recordings of knowledge, facts and experiences in the mind. Minds cannot
function in a vacuum. J.Gresham Machen in Christianity and Liberalism,
1923, notes "The schools of the present day are being ruined by the absurd
notion that education should follow the line of least resistance, and that
something can be ‘drawn out’ of the mind before anything is put in."(p.
176) Hy
Ruchlis in Clear Thinking, 1962, makes the connection of facts to
problem solving by observing "…. a body of facts accumulates and makes it
possible for people to solve many more problems than they could ever hope to
handle successfully solely by their own thinking processes."(p. 17)
This is
the way our founding fathers were taught. Henry Grady Weaver described it thus:
Before he was sixteen, the philosophy and history of the
entire European past had been pounded into his head. Thus when he was old enough to begin thinking
things out for himself, he had in his own mind a storehouse of knowledge,
covering thousands of years of human experience. Also, he was drilled in logic
and the accurate meaning of words as a protection against fallacies of fancy
rhetoric! (The Mainspring of
Human Progress, Henry Grady Weaver, 1947,p 192)
Problem Solving
Summary
It may seem wise to stress problem solving and critical
thinking, but when you make it more important than the acquisition of knowledge
you will get less of both. This seriously impacts our quest for equity.
Consider the child who shows up on our school doorsteps with a huge knowledge
deficit, with this lack of emphasis on knowledge this deficit is greatly
magnified—possibly preventing the child from ever getting caught up—making
equity impossible. Again, our schools
are the one institution in society whose specific job is to dispense
knowledge. If they don't do it, it won't
get done; it won’t get done until we make it our number one priority; and if we
don’t make it our number one priority, we will never resolve the equity
problem.
Standards-Based Reform’s Impact on the Emphasis of Knowledge
Our current reform
efforts—standards-based reform—has, itself, diminished the role of knowledge. No
Child Left Behind has institutionalized standards-based reform throughout
the nation. It is seen by the reformers as “our greatest hope that all our
children will be exposed to the rich curricula and high expectations that can
guarantee their success.” (American Diploma Project, Goals and Objectives,
Achieve.org ) Is it “our greatest
hope”? Due to standards-based reform, our schools are spending an incredible
amount of the student’s time drilling for the test. This focus has resulted in the phrase
"teaching to the test" and the "narrowing of the
curriculum". This is a serious charge and one which deserves a better
answer than "if you teach the curriculum the kids will do well on the
test."
Time is a nonrenewable resource in education and too
many children arrive at school with a time deficit. The “advantaged” child is a
child who arrives at school with their preschool time richly filled with many
experiences, books, travels, and stimulating conversations. The “disadvantaged”
child is a child who arrives at school without many experiences, books,
travels, and stimulating conversations. For these children especially, it is
imperative we do not waste their time. Every moment of the precious school day
should be filled with engaging their minds with facts, knowledge and
experience, and reading, writing and arithmetic. We must close the deficiency
of their knowledge and experience gap as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, in
our
Achieving Equity: How Are We Doing?
With the current
educational philosophy and reform policies in place, we should ask: “What are
our actual results? What has been the impact of the loss in emphasis on
knowledge? Has it undermined our reform efforts and made them less effective?”
Let us answer and analyze some crucial questions that are not normally asked
and discussed.
1. Have we enabled our children to grow stronger
as they progress through the grade levels?
No.
A disappointment in the lack of progress through
grade levels has caused many to focus on the inadequacy of our middle schools
and high schools. Looking at performance
levels on national and international tests, it appears that we are doing a good
job in the elementary schools and losing ground in high school. Could the truth be just the opposite?
Why the overall drop off in scores beginning at the
middle school and continuing through high school? The answer could be found in the fact that a
mind deprived of basic knowledge is crippled in the future. For example, how can a child that had never
learned the basic geography locations of
Another crippling trend in our elementary schools is
that we are, in the words of Sandra Stotsky, Losing Our Language. She
details the loss of academic goals in our elementary readers. For example, in a
discussion of twelve stated characteristics of a reading series she notes “that
only one characteristic is academic in nature—the third. It alone mentions
“knowledge,” although it remains to be seen what constitutes knowledge in this
series.” (Losing Our Language, Sandra Stotsky, The Free Press,
1999, p.52)
Also, many of our children are left crippled in math;
they are leaving our elementary schools without fluency in arithmetic. Again,
the cause is the prevailing educational philosophy coupled with the untimed state math assessments that focus only on abstract
reasoning.
Without geographical and historical facts, without a
rich heritage of literature, and without fluency in the facts of arithmetic,
our children’s progress in high school must fall off. With the lack of emphasis
on knowledge in our educational philosophy and with the state test forcing our
elementary schools to focus on abstract reasoning skills, our students are
simply not prepared for high school.
Anecdotally, many discriminating parents (whom twelve
years ago, before standard-based reform, placed their children in our public
schools), are now homeschooling or private schooling their children for the
elementary grades, yet still placing their children in a public high
school. Why? If our high schools are
failing, why would they do this?
Paradoxically, these parents, by their decisions, are rating our high
schools as better than our elementary schools.
Our high schools are not necessarily broken, but our
elementary schools might be. Our elementary schools are not broken in the sense
of doing poorly on the state tests as they have adapted to the new paradigm of
focusing on abstract reasoning skills; they are broken in the sense that they
are not preparing our children for success in high school. What is the purpose of schooling? Is it to
become an educated person or to do well on a state test? Clearly, the goal in
our schools today is to do well on the state tests.
2. Have we closed the achievement gap? No.
Again, the disadvantaged child, who arrives at the
school door with a huge deficiency of knowledge and experiences and then is
drilled in problem solving and critical thinking skills instead of having his
mind filled with knowledge, can never catch up.
The advantaged child is able to overcome the lack of knowledge presented
in the schools by picking it up at home. Therefore, under the present
philosophy and reform efforts, this gap has persisted.
3. Have we slowed the drop-out rate? No.
Here again, a rediscovery of the importance of
knowledge can help. The best solution we have to keep students from dropping
out of school is to give them a reason to be in school. As previously mentioned, a refocus on the
Constitutional mandate can provide this reason.
However, for this to be effective, students must know history, be
steeped in the stories of our founders and in the beginnings of this great American experiment
that has provided freedom to the greatest extent ever in the history of
mankind.
Unfortunately, our students are receiving less and
less teaching of history. This last legislative session, social studies
teachers heavily lobbied for a fifth grade TAKS test so that the elementary
school would again give history its proper prominence in the curriculum. One
teacher wisely pointed out that it was the recent immigrants who were most in
need of the subject, and also the most likely not to receive it. They are also
at high risk of dropping out. Could there be a connection?
4. According to our
experienced teachers, has standards-based reform made our children academically
stronger today than in 1993, when standards-based reform began? No.
This is a question that should be asked of every
experienced teacher in the trenches.
These teachers are the ones who know what is happening in our schools.
Their answer to this question is invariably: “the children are academically the
same or weaker”.
5. Have we helped our children perform better on
the ACT and SAT tests? Have we decreased
the amount of remedial courses our students need for
college? No.
It is important to remember that standards-based
reform officially began in
Conclusion
In summary, the
disadvantaged child, who comes to our schools with a severe knowledge deficit,
is severely handicapped by our current paradigm. Their minds are basically
empty when compared with their advantaged counterparts. Since, facts and
knowledge are considered a low level and given a low priority, little effort is
given to fill these empty minds. This severely handicaps their ability to think
clearly. This leads to poor results on the TAKS, especially the older they get.
The heavy attention on the test in the early grades does have a slight payoff
on passing the test in the early grades, but it totally hamstrings their future
progress by leaving them with little in their minds to reason with. This leads
to their failure. That leads to their discouragement, and then they drop out.
To help realize equity in our schools and to help
every child reach their maximum potential requires some simple but difficult to
implement changes. Specifically, we should reestablish knowledge as the focus
of our schools. Re-labeling "low level skills" to "foundational
skills" and "high level skills" to "secondary skills"
in Bloom’s Taxonomy would help in changing this focus. Also, as educational
leaders, we need to use our bully pulpits to tout the wisdom and benefits of
knowledge. Finally, we need to reconstruct the TAKS test to focus more on
knowledge and less on process skills or otherwise the schools will still
maintain the current orthodoxy.
Failure to consider the philosophical foundation on
which our education efforts are based will lead to failure. No matter what you
build on the sand, it will not stand. We must be wise and build our educational
house on the rock of knowledge. As educational leaders, this is one of the
greatest steps we can make to help close the equity gap in our schools, lower
the dropout rate, restore the teacher in the trenches to a fulfilling career,
and, guess what—develop problem solving and critical thinking in our students
and prepare them for the twenty-first century workforce.
Don
McLeroy
979-255-2538
dmcleroy@att.net