Let's Fix Education / by Bruce Deitrick Price

Episode 186: What Do American Kids Learn In Grade One? (Quora question) Wed, Jan 22, 2025

Bruce Deitrick Price

Episode 186: What Do American Kids Learn In Grade One?  (Quora question)   

Wed, Jan 22, 2025

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We need more learning starting in kindergarten. And a lot less blah-blah-blah.

The essence of the problem, the essence of the solution, all in 5-minute podcast.

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         as mentioned in podcast:
50 YOUTUBE VIDEOS EXPLAIN WHERE K-12 WENT WRONG 


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Listen to PODCAST or read TRANSCRIPT.
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For a 2-page explanation
of how everyone can help,
visit  Education Reform 

When you need a smart gift,
give Saving K-12 .

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Word-Wise Education
757-455-5020
Bruce Deitrick Price

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Bio: Bruce Deitrick Price is a novelist, artist, poet, 
and education reformer. 

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Let's Fix Education explains to Americans why their schools are so bad. The people in charge prefer mediocrity because they are socialists of one kind or another. If people work together to promote real education, we'll have it.

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LET'S FIX EDUCATION      by    Bruce Deitrick Price

Episode 186                         Wed, Jan 22, 2025

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Episode 186: What Do American Kids Learn In Grade One?  (Quora question)   


The US is vast and fragmented from state to state and city to city, so any answer will be imprecise. 

Mainly, I am afraid that in most schools the students learn little. Our public schools are not set up to teach much. They are set up to create a cooperative child. If you think of these schools as daycare services or indoctrination centers, you’ll understand everything that goes on there. That is my earnest answer based on lots of evidence.

Now, if the question is, what COULD they learn, the answer is, almost anything. Classical academies, Montessori schools, private schools, homeschoolers— they all teach children a great deal. Professor E D Hirsch should be especially reviewed as he has devoted much of his career to determining what children can and should learn at different stages.

I believe that the question of what kids can learn is fascinating and hugely important, something our universities should look at. But I can almost guarantee you that our Education Establishment never asks this question. They ask the very different question: what, from an ideological point of view, should kids learn?

If Trump eliminates the Department of Education, there will be an opening throughout the country for better ideas than the ones we've been stuck with. Please, everyone take advantage of this opportunity. 

I've written a lot about how learning takes place. And although a cliché, I do believe it's a lot like starting a fire. You need some twigs, matches, kindling, basic stuff that together can lead to a fire. What you don't need is empty woke platitudes according to SEL, CRT and DEI.

I suggest forgetting all that stuff. Clear your head and ask yourself what would be something really interesting for the kids to deal with? Why do magnets attract and repel each other? When something burns, what's actually going on? How does a tree grow bigger? You see, such questions are actual knowledge, precisely what schools are supposed to be about.

The sinister magic of K-12 is convincing students and parents that something useful is taking place even when there's nothing useful taking place at all. However, when schools return to being concerned with facts and knowledge, then we'll have real schools again. Same as it ever was.

Our Education Establishment is equally hostile to history, biology, science, geography, and general knowledge. These fakers want schools.to forget what has always been the mission of schools. They lie to hide the truth, and even more pathetic, they lie in order to make school as boring as possible so children will continue to learn as little as possible. That’s cruel.

I want to capture with one image what is going on in our schools. If you ask these people to describe the ideal classroom, they spout endless woke platitudes. Children should be working happily in groups, confident that their background, family situation, ethnography, and so on will not be held against them, and being hopeful about the increasing equity that will transform our society. That sort of thing — every bit of woke smoke imaginable — will be blown in your direction.

So here's my suggestion for getting us back on track. Teach more. Dillydally less.

I am struck every day by the extraordinary complexity and beauty of our universe. Everywhere you look there’s fascinating stuff. Find things  you personally enjoy, and then share them with your students. Or ask them to tell you about the things they personally enjoy, and ask them to explain why.

QED: According to the Atlantic, there are 14 billion videos on YouTube. You and your students would love millions of them. Guess what. I personally created 50 graphic videos about education. Figure even five or 10 minutes per video, you can look at (and discuss) all of them in a day or two. And.then, this is my wager, you will know more about K-12 than the people in charge. And it's all free. First step, try any three at random.

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         as mentioned in podcast:
50 YOUTUBE VIDEOS EXPLAIN WHY K-12 IS SUCH A MESS. 

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link to videos--

https://www.youtube.com/@BruceDeitrickPrice/videos