Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality by Charles Murray is a very short book that is built around 4 premises that should be common sense, but alas, we live in a society run by progressive lunatics, so there is no such thing. The book is 15 years old, and in hindsight, Murray was far too optimistic back then in thinking that things might change. Anyway, I wanted to highlight one of the four ideas he discusses because it is relevant to yeshiva education. The idea is simple: half the school population will be, by definition, below average. Common sense, right? If there is an average student in the middle, then by definition, half of the population falls below that average, and half above.
Murray writes (pp 44-45):
...Children in the lower half of the distribution are just not smart enough to read or calculate at a level of fluency that most of the rest of us take for granted. Children still lower in the distribution of linguistic and logical-mathematical ability -- the bottom third of the distribution is a rough demarcation of the group I am talking about -- are just not smart enough to become literate or numerate in more than a rudimentary sense.
Just not smart enough [italics in the original]. It is a phrase that we all use in conversation, we all know what it means, and it has to be made available once again to discussions about educational policy. Some children are just not smart enough to success on a conventional academic track. Recognition of this truth does not mean callousness or indifference. It does not mean spending less effort on the education of some children than of others. But it does mean that we must jettison glib rhetoric that makes us feel good..."
Think about a regular classroom of 5th of 6th graders being introduced of gemara. Is it any wonder that not all of them are up to the task? Think about high school kids expected to learn b'chavrusa for multiple hours a day and then listen to a Rebbe say over a complex hesber based on abstract ideas. Is it any wonder that at least half the shiur is lost? Yet the majority will continue through the system, onto beis medrash, kollel, etc. We have turned what should be a path for the elite into a path for the masses who walk the walk, talk the talk, but I fear cannot really "think the thoughts."
Just something to think about.
This echoes a thought I had about "you should enjoy your learning Torah." It says ישיש כגבור לרוץ ארח. For some people, running is an unparalleled joy. For others, it is a misery. It all depends on whether you have the gift of athleticism. Maybe maybe, a glump, with enough effort, can recreate himself and become a ultramarathoner who jumps out of bed and into his Nikes. Humans are tremendously adaptable. There are even women on the Supreme Court. But as I said, some people are born with the gift, and for them, using that gift is a great pleasure.
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head -- exactly what Murray says. In the quote I put in the post he refers to linguistic and logical-mathematical ability. In the book he contrasts that with other forms of intelligence, e.g. musical or kinesthetic. You wouldn't expect every child to become a concert level pianist, or play varsity sports, so why do we expect every student to master college level math or history? Or get a BA?
DeleteI did not want to say it in the post, but it seems to me that yeshivas are now in the self esteem game (it's taken 50 years for late 60's educational theory to make its way over to us), which is why you see books saying "Just Love Them," or talking about simcha in education. It doesn't really matter if kids don't really learn so long as they feel good about themselves and are happy, because this way they will stay in the fold. Everything else is icing on the cake.
Been saying this since mesivta high school when more than half the guys did not really know what was going on in iyun seder/did not really learn anything… maybe this is connected to the Gemara about those that pasken (or maybe it was something else?) but really should not be.
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