E. D. Hirsch Schools We Need

Annotation

A child's mind is hungry for knowledge, stimulation, and the excitement of learning which school should provideyet most American schools fall far short. From kindergarten through high school, our public educational system is among the worst in the developed world. In disdaining content-based curricula for abstract (and discredited) theories of how a child learns, our schools have done terrible harm to America's students. Instead of preparing them for the highly competitive, information-based economy in which we now live, our school practices have severely curtailed their abilityand desireto learn. But research has shown that if children are taught in ways that emphasize hard work, the learning of facts, and rigorous testing, their enthusiasm for school will grow, their test scores will rise, and they will become successful citizens of the information age.