Language Development

Journal 2

31/07/2010

Teach Knowledge, Not "Mental Skills"

 E. D. Hirsch

This text explained how a failing public school in the South Bronx was transformed by a 'core knowledge' curriculum, which gave strict guidlines for the knowledge that each student should have acquired during each grade. We looked specifiacally at the structure of the argument Hirsch presented in this article, which I found to be very convincing, although I do not agree with such a perscritptive curriculum. 

Firstly, background information about the schools and the poor standards was given to illustrate the problem before the author moved on to intorduce the argument for a 'core knowledge' curriculum. The main body of the text consisted of the main points of the argument, starting with a criticism of a learning skills based curriculum, how this approach often resulted in gaps in student knowledge and the political standpoint on the debate between skills and knowledge. 

I found the article very engaging; the author's passion for the cause was demonstrated by phrases such as "disastrous conpromise" (p.116), "excruciatingly slow" (p.116) and "scornfully dismiss" (p.116). This may be due to the fact that this article first appeared in the New York Times newspaper on the opinion page and perhaps is less formal than an academic piece of writing. Nonetheless, having a strong voice within a piece of writing is something that I would like to develop to form a strong argument and an engaging piece of work.