Where are the independent thinkers? An extreme irony:

Due to the Common Core curriculum, school districts are furiously trying to teach critical thinking to America’s students. I’d like to observe the following: As the country lurches in lockstep toward this goal, independent thinkers in educational administration seem to be vanishing. Is the Common Core curriculum the best plan for American education? A case can be made for and against this new focus on critical thinking, but almost nobody in educational administration is making the case against the goal — at least publicly.

Let’s start with the fact that those countries who are outscoring us on international tests are NOT doing anything like the Common Core. No one has put anything like the Common Core into widespread practice. This is a huge experiment with an already educationally-lagging population as test fodder. I submit we might be much better off studying Finland carefully and then doing what they do, since the Finnish approach seems to work very well.

Eduhonesty: Where are the voices saying what I just said? Many teachers are sounding off, but a dearth of administrators seem have joined the chorus. Is it because, in the upper echelons of American educational administration, there aren’t many critical thinkers? Maybe these pundits want to emphasize critical thinking because in some distant, vaguely aware portion of their collective consciousness, they realize they don’t seem to be able or willing to think critically.