A Well-Trained Mind for the 21st Century
Learning Without Teaching to the Test
Many schools today are limiting their course subjects to focus on succeeding on standardized tests. History, science and the arts have been victims of this reduction. What is a mass of information worth without clarity of fundamental principles? Classical education requires BOTH a strong foundation of principles and a broad mass of knowledge.
Albert Einstein
Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think!
Many parents agree; schools ought to prepare students for 21st century jobs with cutting edge skills, but most people can’t really define the skills that will be needed in the next twenty years. The well-trained mind of a classically educated student is prepared for the 21st century. Technology is changing so quickly that by the time our children enter the workforce, today’s skills will likely be obsolete. Is there any way to prepare for these jobs or skills? There needs to be a foundation of knowledge for skills to rest upon.
It is impossible to base our education on physical science and technical training alone and expect children to grow into adults who can sift through evidence and push aside sentiment or emotionally-based opinions to study and investigate essential facts.
Jobs do not make the human mind. The human mind makes the jobs. The well-trained mind is not limited to a list of available jobs in the classified section of the local newspaper, yet American politicians and government educrats continue to insist that we must prepare children for jobs. We have to change this mindset. America must train the next generation’s young minds so they’ll be equipped to lead and create jobs, businesses, markets, industries and economies. Well-trained minds (not just graduates with job-skills) have moved civilization through the enlightenment, the industrial age and the information age.
Adapted from A Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer