Something rotten, but not in Denmark

When I read job listings and browse prospective employer's websites, I often see references to the school using "Responsive Classroom." But I've never known what that meant, until I found this little list on one school's site. If you ever wanted a concise version of everything wrong in American education, look no further. My commentary appears in blue italics.

1. The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.
No, no, no, no, NO!!! Just no! It's not. Why? Because most people have one chance to learn the academics they need to succeed in this world -- that's when they are in school. Everyone is forced, for their entire lives, to learn the "social curriculum." (I'm using quotes because I'm not sure what that phrase really means.)

2. The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.
Again, sorry, that's not necessarily true!  In elementary school music class, scientists have proven that children learn the most when they sing by themselves! Not with a group, not with an adult. By themselves, alone, without social interaction. The learning process is entirely contained within a person's head.  Take a casual look around, and you will find the most educated people you know are the most widely read, another solitary, non-social activity.

3. To be successful academically and socially, children need a set of social skills: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.
To be successful socially, yes, these skills are of the utmost importance.  To be successful academically, not so much.  Those stereotype nerds and academics came from a reason.  Academically minded people tend to be socially awkward; social skills are not needed in the realm of knowledge where the academics (both professional and amateur) spend their time.  The world of ideas does not require social skills, it requires the ability to think logically and make accurate observations. 

4. Knowing the children we teach-individually, culturally, and developmentally-is as important as knowing the content we teach.
Another half-truth.  We do need to know our students as individuals, what knowledge they have of the subject, how they react to specific pedagogical methods.  But we don't need to know them on the same level as their friends and family.  For ours is not that kind of relationship.  The teacher-student relationship is one founded in that world of knowledge.  If the teacher does not have a truly deep knowledge of the subject at then he is doomed to failure.  Without intimate subject knowledge, the teacher is forced to rely on inferior materials and rigid, one-dimensional instruction that does not take the individuality of the students into account.  

5. Knowing the families of the children we teach and working with them as partners is essential to children's education.
Um, no.  If the teacher knows his students as individuals, then he will have all the knowledge he needs of the family.  The family is not doing the learning, the child is.  There should be good two-way communication between family and parents in the early grades to provide accountability for the child.  But as the child gets older, she as an individual should be held responsible for learning (or not learning) in school.

6. How the adults at school work together is as important as their individual competence: Lasting change begins with the adult community.
Yes, by all means, let's devalue actual knowledge and demean the adults who have it by saying that it really isn't all that important anyway.  This is an apology for teachers who cannot think their way out of a paper sack!  It gives cover to all those elementary school teachers who do not understand fractions, but have to teach it anyway.  (Yes, that is a true scenario.  I worked at such a school.) If you have incompetent employees who the hell cares if they work well together?  The students that graduate from that school will have learned nothing.  And that is a crime.