Conservatives and Liberals Bond Over Liberal Arts

While we’re on the subject of education, a survey by the new research and advocacy group Common Core shows “a significant proportion of teenagers live in ‘stunning ignorance’ of history and literature.” The organization says “The No Child Left Behind Act has increased the amount of time schools devote to basic reading and math skills, squeezing core subjects out of the classroom.” They are working to bring history, literature, civics, language, and the arts back into classrooms.

Bravo, I say. Yes, reading and math form a foundation, but it will remain a skeletal and abandoned one without other subjects to give it color and meaning. I also think there doesn’t always have to be a trade-off between reading/math and the rest of the curriculum. There’s no reason basic reading can’t be taught through selected passages from literature, until a child is ready for full works. Why not even teach math through history and civics, whether to analyze a political campaign (fun with delegates!) or determine just where a general’s military provisioning plans went wrong and what the average winter temperature is in Moscow? (For that matter, why not build a curriculum with lessons on diversity and tolerance woven throughout, using literature, art, and events in history as jumping off points?)

Common Core is an odd mix, though. As the New York Times notes, its founding board includes Antonia Cortese, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, a union often in bed with the Democrats, and its executive director is Lynne Munson, former deputy chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and former special assistant to Lynne Cheney. Still, it’s caught my attention, and I’ll be keeping an eye on what it does next.