Tag: pedagogy
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Education in America – Part Six

Part 6: Why So Many Parents No Longer Trust Public Education Public trust is rarely destroyed by a single event. It is worn down by repeated contradiction. Parents are told that schools are committed to excellence, yet many see weak academic results. They are told that schools welcome partnership, yet too often experience opacity, delay, and condescension…
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Education in America – Part Five

The Child Does Not Belong to the State A free society must answer certain questions correctly or it will soon answer many others wrongly. One of those questions is this: who bears the first responsibility for the child? The answer is not the school district, the state agency, the licensing body, the union, or the educational theorist.…
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Education in America – Part Four

When the Classroom Becomes a Political Stage A classroom is not a campaign office, a protest rally, or a stage on which adults perform their moral identity before a captive audience of minors. Its first obligation is instruction. That does not mean politics must never be discussed. On the contrary, any serious education in history,…
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Education in America – Part Two

How Schools Stopped Teaching Children How to Think There are few phrases in modern education more overused, or more carelessly used, than “critical thinking.” It appears in mission statements, curriculum guides, strategic plans, and teacher training materials with almost liturgical regularity. Yet the phrase often conceals as much as it reveals. A student is not…