Ever since New Labour came to power in 1997, professional educators and administrators have been assiduously promoting radical changes designed to renew the progressive agenda which was thoroughly discredited in the 1980s and 1990s. They've dressed up tired old ideas with new slogans: our children are now supposed to be learning '21st century skills' and 'learning to learn'. Instead of child-centred learning, we now have 'personalised learning'--in their fantasy world, these people really seem to believe that teachers have the time to design lessons which match each child's 'learning style'. High school teachers often have to teach over 200 pupils--one can only wonder what fantasy world our educators (and New Labour) live in.
Of course, our progressive educators make it sound very convincing, citing numerous studies conducted at the Institute of Education and other prestigous institutions. However, educators live in a hermetically-sealed world, where other serious disciplines are generally ignored. Dan Willingham, a distinguished American cognitive scientist, exposes the fraudulent nature of progressive mythology. Children cannot learn all-purpose 'critical thinking skills'--why anyone supposed they could is a complete mystery. If you want to master any serious academic discipline, there aren't any shortcuts: you really do need to know a lot. The web won't help you--if you don't know a lot about a subject already, the information you find won't mean much to you.
This book is superbly written. Willingham makes his points with well-chosen examples. It is written at the level of the educated lay reader--it's a good introduction to a complex subject, and it deals with learning at a level that parents and teachers will be able to understand. If you have any interest at all in education, buy this book--it will open your eyes.
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