The Task of Building a Thirst for Knowledge
Deborah Meier's reply to Robert Pondiscio of CitizenshipFirst.
Dear Robert,
Here's a much too long reply. The time I allotted for editing has been cut short by the death of a colleague, Herb Rosenfeld. He was a math teacher in New York City for many years and one of the founders of Central Park East Secondary School. Reading what his students had to say about Herb on Facebook is a reminder of my final point below—how much it matters that teachers and students and families see themselves as members of a shared community. (I'll try next week to print out some of those heartfelt memories.)
Back to your Tuesday letter. I had a classroom "rule'—never say "obviously" or "there can be no dispute." It turns out that it's when we're most inclined to say this that we are also about to learn something new. But I'll leave your assumptions about language and common knowledge for another letter. It's an important issue, so thanks for raising it again.
We agree, what we do at school should be a hefty part of the knowledge an 18-year-old leaves us with. But trying to make a list of "must learns" is a different matter. Actually, if the "experts" could cram it into just one page I'd sigh and go along. But remember, if "good old" Mr. Mayor/Governor/President X can mandate pages and pages of grade-by-grade knowledge, and