The Schools We Need: And Why We Dont Have Them

This paperback edition, with a new introduction, offers a powerful, compelling, and unassailable argument for reforming Americas schooling methods and ideasby one of Americas most important educators, and author of the bestselling Cultural Literacy.For over fifty years, American schools have operated under the assumption that challenging children academically is unnatural for them, that teachers do not need to know the subjects they teach, that the learning process should be emphasized over the facts taught. All of this is tragically wrong.Renowned educator and author E. D. Hirsch, Jr., argues that, by disdaining contentbased curricula while favoring abstractand discreditedtheories of how a child learns, the ideas uniformly taught by our schools have done terrible harm to Americas students. Instead of preparing our children for the highly competitive, informationbased economy in which we now live, our schools practices have severely curtailed their ability, and desire, to learn.With an introduction that surveys developments in education since the hardcover edition was published, The Schools We Need is a passionate and thoughtful book that will appeal to the millions of people who cant understand why Americas schools arent educating our children.