So much work to produce

Last year Chloe complained about all the studying she had to do, but she had almost no assignments or projects. I don't know what it's like in other parts of the country, but my experience with school-age kids is that they aren't required to do much studying (and, like me, no one has ever taught them how to study), but rather lots of projects and papers that require research and hands-on learning. Rote memorization is considered bad because it doesn't engage the students and so they don't retain enough of what they learn. Maybe so, but in the short term it's beginning to look preferable to being responsible for daily assignments and multiple projects to work on requiring research and - horrors - critical thinking. And then there's the SAT and the ACT that she couldn't take last year (which means she's missing one year of American education going into the tests) and scheduling a community-service project. Even though it's not a good idea, it's so much easier to be told what to do and then do it without having to think about it too much.

Before last year I would have agreed that engaging students in a subject teaches them much more than simply studying, memorizing, and passing tests, after which much of the information is forgotten. But we had a smart exchange student who is a product of the memorization system and was much more well-rounded - and more advanced - in her knowledge than most students I know here who are a few years older. It's become a cliché, but school here (in her third language) was much easier for her than school at home. She was shocked that Chloe didn't know Dali or his work: "But those paintings are famous!" Were she and her equally-as-smart sister anomalies? We hear all the time that European students are much more advanced than Americans, but then why do so many of them come to America for their university educations? It's hard to compare because exchange students are not representative of all students.

I have discovered, though, that if I had to chose between producing a critical thinker and one acquainted with surrealist artists, I'd chose the critical thinker. It's easier to learn about art at a later date than it is to learn to think critically.

Comments

[Anne]

Speaking as a teacher I'd say that there has to be a happy medium between fact learning and critical thinking. I went to school during the era when this changeover was taking place and I am so grateful for my early years of schooling when "facts" were emphasised. Knowing lots about stuff can help in joining the dots between disparate pieces of information can aid in critical thinking