An old friend had a pat phrase whenever people became so focused on unimportant matters that they had no time left to concentrate on important ones. He would remind any who were within hearing, “Don’t major in the minors!” This is important advice for schools to remember also. It is also a tip that can easily be lost in a time of fixation on “minimum” competencies.
This is not to say that basic skills are unimportant. Nothing could be further from the truth. Having basic reading, writing and computation skills is a springboard that allows one to learn at higher levels. However, society cannot force schools to concentrate so heavily on “the basics” that they have little time or energy left to teach students what is equally important.
David Letterman is fond of embarrassing young people by randomly asking them trivia questions on street interviews. When they do not know the answer to these questions, it is assumed to be an indictment of their intelligence and education. When people have taken the next step and asked American adults these kinds of trivia questions, many of them come up blank as well.
Now please do not take this wrong. It is important for young people to know the fifty state capitals at some point in their lives. However, it could easily be argued that little hurt will come to a person if he does not remember all of them at some later date. After all, is it not more important that a person knows how to find the answer to questions rather than taking the time filling one’s head with discrete facts?
This seems especially true in our technological age where information is doubling every three to four years. Some people might not know the capitol of Rhode Island, for example. However, if they know where to find the answer, no harm will befall them unless they find themselves on a game show.
Once students know the basic skills, a shift in emphasis needs to take place. Schools then need to help young people apply these skills in different situations. They also should be challenged to think critically about what they read and hear and discern between credible sources and propaganda.
Also very important is the students’ ability to solve problems, and think creatively. They need to be able to put ideas together in unique ways and gain deeper understanding by this combination of information and insight. Young people also should be challenged to ask questions and find their own answers to their musings through inquiry, experimentation, and data analysis. Then they need to be able to present these findings to others to help them benefit from their work.
Basic skill acquisition, though important, is not what has made America great. This country has been built on inventiveness, inquisitiveness, and an entrepreneurial spirit. None of these key American traits are developed in an environment that gets lost in detail, repetition and drill.
Perhaps the most important American trait of all is the willingness to question and critique information. Americans, at their best, have been willing to doubt widely held assumptions and test them for themselves. These are the traits that caused the United States to be founded in the first place. Autocratic thinking has never been the American way.
It also should not be the way of American schools. Therefore, it is critical that schooling in America is seen as much more that an acquisition of knowledge. More importantly American education needs to help students take this knowledge and use it in ever more complex and creative ways. This will keep our country great. High basic skills scores, though important, in no way guarantee future success.
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