I Before We . . . Weird
Child-centered, developmental education can easily lead to self-centered adulthood.
Another quote from Hirsch's latest book:
Child-centered, developmental education can easily lead to self-centered adulthood, and according to sociological research has done so. The movement in America between the WE sentiment and the I sentiment has been traced by Robert Putnam in a fine recent book entitled Upswing. The recent dominance of the "I" motif traced by Putnam has been aided and abetted by developmentalist, child-centered education. It’s observable in whole segments of the American population who have taken an "I" approach to the wearing of masks during the COVID crisis. Masks discomfort the "I" but protect the "WE." The WE, patriotic, communal education accompanied the rise of the United States. Child-centered education has helped produce our academic and moral decline. If we renew coherence and whole-class instruction in early education America can regain her communal footing. But if we continue to miseducate and individualize and perpetuate incorrect developmental theories our educational, cultural, and political slide will continue.
