I've written several articles about classical education, and finally came up with this sweeping epiphany: if you tossed out what is typically done in public schools and dropped in a classical education curriculum, two things would happen: schools would get much better and the costs would go down.

 I just interviewed Laurie Thomas, author of a new book called "Not Trivial--how studying the traditional liberal arts can set you free."

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The short version is this: Common Core is a federal takeover of American education, probably not a good thing in itself. However, if the Education Establishment had been doing a good job for the last 50 years, we might feel confident they would improve matters. But why would the same people, given much more power, suddenly start doing a good job???

I think they'll continue doing the same bad job or even worse. But the amount of jargon, hype and malarkey will…

Well, for people who are in charge of our public schools and think they're doing a GREAT job, I would agree that this article is totally irrelevant.

I write articles for people who know that things are not ideal or even close to ideal. But they don't know quite why. And they need ways to explain it to parents, teachers, administrators, and the community.

This is a fairly lively little article called "…

Do you believe in teaching more, not less?

Yes? Well, you are certainly an oddball. Our entire public school system is devoted to the idea that children should learn less each year. Less, always less.

They used to have to know the names of the state capitals. Then they had to know the names of the states. Then they had to know the name of the country. Ah, the good old days.

If you haven't been keeping a close eye on our Education Establishment,…

Ken Robinson wants to create a creativity curriculum, and downgrade "academics." By academics Robinson and his supporters mean all the things that schools traditionally taught, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic.



If you care about any aspect of the traditional curriculum, you have to watch this development with concern. 



The schools are doing a dreadful job of teaching reading now. Can you imagine if they…

So far as I can tell, most American children are taught by programs that combine Whole Language and some phonics, all done under the banner of Balanced Literacy.

 But what are the actual names of the most dominant curricula?? I know the name "Breakthrough to Literacy"  and also "Success for All."

Please list the others you know about.

If you want to praise them or condemn them, that's…

The new site -- Bouncingball.weebly.com -- has five videos to show the concept in action.  There is Mother Goose, Edgar Allan Poe, Dr. Seuss, and the Wizard of Oz. A total of about 25 minutes. Easy to check out and to reflect on the possibilities.

The bouncing ball forces children to read in the proper direction, and to take notice of syllables. (This…

From an interview on EducationViews.org, One answer in particular is crucial, I think, for figuring out where we go next:

Michael F. Shaughnessy: Now, details----there are a lot of different theories about what is wrong with education. Your take ?

Bruce Price: I believe that most of the administrative, financial and cultural issues usually discussed are…

Reading instruction remains the biggest problem in American education.

All the Establishment voices continue to talk about college and career ready, new core standards that will align with world standards, 21st-century skills--in other words, an endless parade of glib promises.

Meanwhile, many kids in the first grade are not learning to read. This makes the whole thing a sick joke.

Keep in mind that from 1930 to 2000, roughly speaking,…

Recent news out of North Carolina states: “Senate wants cursive, times tables taught.”

Imagine, government at the state level has to pass a law requiring that schools make sure children know the most basic things--multiplication tables and how to write their names.

The new initiatives were passed by “a wide margin.”

This news shows how foolish our Education Establishment can be: they let the school situation deteriorate to the point that…

What I've figured out so far. The 1-minute version:

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Free The Schools

 Our Education Establishment has an 80-year record

of praising and protecting bad pedagogies.…

One of the most remarkable historical facts of the last 80 years is the persistence of a sinister and unsuccessful pedagogy known as Look-Say, Whole Word, Sight-Words, Whole Language, Balanced Literacy, High-Frequency Words, and a number of other confusing terms.

Whatever these things are called, they must be banished,…

I write about education six days a week. My main motivation is that I’m sure the public schools can be much better at less cost.

Another big motivation is that I’m continually disappointed by the powers that be -- big media, the business community, the military. All of them complain about education but none of them actually gets involved. They don’t push the Education Establishment to do a better job. Our movers and shakers, alas, do not move and shake all that…