Greg Tanaka grew up around violence and decided that studying would be his way out. That led to a career in computer science and a move to Palo Alto, California, so his kids could get a great education. But Palo Alto schools don’t seem to value studying right now.
Last year, they excluded high-scoring students from advanced math classes in order to make room for low-scoring students. Parents brought suit and won, but Palo Alto High School retaliated by canceling the class and penalizing students who go outside for advanced math classes.
Today’s schools seem to treat math like something you either “have” or “have not.” The fact that knowledge comes from studying is widely ignored.
The human brain can only take in small chunks of information at a time, so big learning only happens after frequent concentration on small chunks. Everyone is free to do this, and no one gets knowledge without it.
In my 25 years as a college professor, I began to fear that studying was no longer a thing. In today’s world, learning is linked to everything but studying. Genetics, socioeconomic status, and teacher quality get so much attention that students learn to blame external factors and overlook their choices about studying.
I discussed this with Mr. Tanaka, who’s now on the Palo Alto City Council. He teaches AI machine learning, and he explained to me that machines can’t learn unless they have context for the inputs provided. Machines only learn from inputs geared to the level they’re at.
In the words of the great physicist Edward Teller, “You can’t learn something unless you almost know it.”
So putting students in a class that’s far above their level of proficiency doesn’t help them. No greater good is served by giving places in advanced classes to students who don’t have the foundation to absorb the content.
Any student can build their foundation with study over time. Without study, educational opportunity is wasted.
So how could we be in a place where educators themselves disregard the essential role of study?
The historical roots of this mindset are important so we don’t jump to the conclusion that today’s headlines are the whole story.
A century ago, John Dewey asserted that schools aren’t really for knowledge but for removing children from their parents’ culture. From his perch at Columbia University’s School of Teacher Education, his theory came to dominate the education world.
In the 1980s, the concept of “passion” was added. “Do what you love and the money will follow” was the guiding belief. Education “experts” insisted that students learn when they “find their passion.” So when students refuse to study, don’t worry about it—they will when they “find their passion.”
Those with a doctoral degree in education tell us to waste years of neuroplasticity waiting for passion while ignoring the hard work that goes into learning any skill of value. And they invoke the greater good when they do this.
The Internet Age brought the belief that knowledge doesn’t matter because you can always look it up. The problem is that you can’t interpret what you look up if you don’t have context and basic skills.
All these theories are simply the veneer being used to cover up the real problem: social promotion.
For decades now, students have been promoted whether or not they’ve mastered skills. Over time, a student’s skills can fall so far behind that they can’t begin to make use of the educational opportunity they’re exposed to. All this is happening under the guidance of armies of people with degrees in educational administration.
Mr. Tanaka told me that he’s bad at Spanish, so he would never expect students who are good at Spanish to be forced to take the same class as him. And he wouldn’t want to take a class geared toward them. So why should students with more math skills be forced to take the same classes as students at a different skill level?
The worst part of this is that you don’t know what you don’t know.
Students who don’t know how to study literally don’t know what they’re missing. They don’t know their own power to increase their knowledge by studying, and they don’t know the universe of reality outside their awareness.
This is tragic.
Let’s look at the tragedy in human terms rather than theoretical terms. Have you ever interacted with a cashier who couldn’t do simple arithmetic? Imagine what it’s like to face the world without basic skills.
This reality struck me while I was paying for a purchase at a grocery store. My purchase was $11.10, so I gave the cashier $21.25. It seemed simple enough to me, but he said, “You gave me too much.” He gave me back $1.25 and then gave me the change for a $20 indicated on his screen. So I handed him back his change and the $1.25 and asked him to kindly give me a $10 bill and 15 cents so I could lighten my wallet. He was stymied.
I imagine those with a doctoral degree in education telling this young man that learning content doesn’t matter.
Social promotion has created a world in which many young people go through life without basic skills despite colossal expenditure on education.
If Shakespeare were alive today, he would say, “First, shoot all the education administrators.”
