The impending demise of educational romanticism?

[memegarden]

Provocative opinion piece. I agree with some of it, and am mulling the rest. Feel free to mull with me.

Comments

[hydrolagus]

Maybe it's because I'm a romantic--educational and otherwise--but I have difficulty with a fair amount of it. Until one sentence at the end, he sounds comfortable with writing off the "less intelligent" kids. "The eighth-grader who cannot make sense of algebra but has an almost mystical knack with machines is told to stick with the college prep track, because to be a success in life he must go to college and get a B.A." So that eighth-grader does have some value, despite virtues being assigned to nothing other than intelligence previously! The knack with machines is unrelated to intelligence because it's not based on math and literature, and because it's "mystical"--outside of Murray's comprehension. To largely do away with the notion that there are forms of intelligence other than the scholastic places non-academic abilities into limbo of innateness. Admittedly, the trades are hurting for new blood, but calling folks with trade skills 'unintelligent', which colloquially is synonymous with 'stupid', isn't going to help their

[memegarden]

Here are some things I think the writer is correct about

[hydrolagus]

I can agree with those points, and with the idea of judging by relative improvement.