ASK THE QUESTIONS

Championed by Robert Maynard Hutchins (America’s most respected educator), in the early 1950s a selective group of educators, scientists, historians, mathematicians, authors, philosophers, and theologians introduced to public education their plan for better learning.

Their answer lay in the publishing of “The Great Books of the Western World” and its companion collection, “The Great Ideas Today” —- designed to stimulate thinking and an attempt to bring the best of education to Americans everywhere.

Today, public education in our country has slid backward from that earlier promise.
Regrettably, it has morphed from a “culture of learning” into a “culture of testing.” And, that is not a good thing.

Regurgitation of facts and information has become the almost-exclusionary emphasis and the value of our public schools is judged almost exclusively by standardized test scores.

And, our children lose.

Education, rightfully, should be about thinking and questioning. It’s the questions that should be sought and not just the answers. It’s the mental stimulation encountered in “The Great Books” and “The Great Ideas” that should challenge our young people to ponder (and, even challenge) the thinking of the wisely observant.

Premises need to be questioned before acceptance. And, acceptance needs not be a group reaction. Society loses when we all begin to think alike. Our future dims.

Too many of us embrace testing because we are entranced with objectivity – or, at least, we’re entranced by the appearance of it.

What can you and I, as parents, do about this loss of “a culture of learning?”

Well, it’s worth paying attention to our children when they come home from school. Are they asking lots of questions about the subjects they encountered in school that day or are they absorbed in the memorization process as they get ready for their next school day?

Asking the questions is the key to learning. The answers are the easy part.

Knowing the “Whats” and “Wheres” is not always better than knowing the “Hows” and “Whys.”