Letters to the Editor
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‘Education Theorist to Speak At Manhattan Institute Confab’
Mr. Andrew Wolf believes that E.D Hirsch’s philosophies regardingthe development of a mandatory core curriculum will assure knowledge acquisition in our schools [“Education Theorist To Speak At Manhattan Institute Confab,” May 4, 2006]. Knowledge is power and there can be no dispute about its importance – but knowledge must be absorbed in a relevant manner. Isolated snippets of information floating in a realm of irrelevancy fail to engage the mind and certainly do not ignite the imagination. The goal of education is not to force-feed data but to nurture an understanding of why information is vital, fascinating, necessary, and – above all else – meaningful. Truly progressive education enables data intake.
There is no conflict between intense focus on content, knowledge, and scholarship (and, yes, even the perennial reading-battle scapegoats of phonics, spelling, and penmanship are important) and a system of education that values process as a means to product, exploration as a means to discovery and, most critically, that views errors as a natural (when did this word become blasphemous) part of the learning process. Children do learn naturally and this is not a romantic notion; it is a highly predictable and pragmatic tenet of child development. It is our task as educators to harness that learning power to our curricular goals.
HELENE RIBOWSKY
Educational Consultant
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