Mark Hemingway of the Federalist decries “clueless” critics of classical education.
With the failures of public education becoming more evident daily, the interest in classical ed has suddenly become intense. Obviously, I was curious about what people were saying.
But upon reading the thoughts of Michael Hariot … I was so dumbstruck all I could think of was Adam Sandler’s 1995 classic film, “Billy Madison,” which, underneath its farcical façade, is appropriately enough a clarion call for the necessity of quality education:
“At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.” …
… To the extent I can pull a premise out of Harriot’s mess, it seems to be that classical education “doesn’t measure a student’s ability to learn or teach them TO LEARN. It teaches students to learn LIKE WHITE PEOPLE LEARN who have already been deemed smart because they know white things.”
While obviously there are cultural differences that can affect one’s learning environment, I, along with the vast majority of normal people, don’t happen to believe that basic knowledge and how you go about learning it is relative to one’s skin color. Yet educrats everywhere increasingly believe what Harriot is saying. For instance, a proposed California mathematics curriculum declares that focusing on students “getting the right answer,” asking students to “show their work,” and grading them based on their ability to do problems correctly is “white supremacy culture in the mathematics classroom.” …
… Anyway, being asked to demonstrate objective facts and learn shared rules of language to promote mutual understanding was universally understood to be an essential part of all forms of education until about 15 minutes ago. Claiming this feature is unique to classical education, let alone that this is “racism,” is equal parts dishonest and insulting.
