Here’s a paragraph from a long, not very interesting article in the NYT about a 9-year-old Haitian boy’s struggles with not flunking out of of New York schools:
The Common Core, the most significant change to American public education in a generation, was hailed by the Obama administration as a way of lifting achievement at low-performing schools. After decades of rote learning, children would become nimble thinkers equipped for the modern age, capable of unraveling improper fractions and drawing connections between Lincoln and Pericles.“After decades of rote learning …”
Which decades? The 1810s to 1840s? Is Mr. Gradgrind still the most influential educational philosopher of our day?
This reflects a general pattern: liberals have a hard time remembering that they’ve been in charge of a lot of things, such as education and race, for decades, even generations now.
