I'm currently reading Britton LaTulippe's Revealing School: Discover What School Is Really Doing to Your Kids, and one of his claims is that textbooks are just a 'CliffsNotes' version of history.
Why? Textbooks disconnect students from the authentic source material, providing a bare-bones, "here's what you need to know" instead of complete documents. In English, reading the CliffsNotes (or SparkNotes) instead of the book is cheating--why don't we feel the same about history?
I've long criticized textbooks, but hadn't considered it in those terms before. My complaints have always been that textbooks...
Make history boring - Since history is truly fascinating, this alone should disqualify textbooks as a medium of transmission.
Are biased - Remember that high school history textbook with a section on Chairman Mao? There was plenty of information about his background, but barely a sentence for the tens of millions of people massacred under his rule. And right after the minuscule section on Mao, there was half a page on traditional Chinese basket weaving! Practically apoplectic, I told my students this would be like describing Hitler with barely a sentence for the six million Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust. But did you know Hitler was an amateur painter? And Germany has really pretty castles? There are no words for how evil this revisionism is.
Are simply insufficient - Even if you remove the bias, there's simply no way to include all of history's relevant information in a single book. Especially as students get older, they need to be reading primary sources (not about primary sources).
In LaTulippe's words:
[Textbooks] are the scribblings of publishing houses, not the expounding of geniuses in their respective fields. Textbooks even share the same purpose of CliffsNotes, boiling great works of literature into little more than characters and plot outlines used to fill in standardized bubble sheets. Textbooks systematically wring subjects of every trace of passion, genius and inspiration that otherwise would have been discovered...This is a terrible school-inflicted wound, rendering the graduates nothing more than CliffsNote Scholars.
I think we can all agree this is an issue, but I genuinely don't know how to fix it. Most teachers aren't capable of creating their own curriculum, and through no fault of their own. They wanted to be teachers, so they got degrees in education. But these programs focus more on educational trends (which go out of favor every few years anyway) than actually providing an education.
How can we expect teachers to independently assign Ovid and Livy when there's a good chance they don't know who they are?
Let's start with reforming our schools of education.
Go look at the website of Harvard's School of Education, Columbia Teachers College, or any other Ivy League institution that shapes the mold for the rest. You will be hard-pressed to find anything other than modern platitudes about "changing the world" or "promoting equity."
How much scholarship do you see in these places? None. Absolutely none. This is modern political activism masquerading as education, and it needs to stop. We need to train teachers, not "scholar-activists," a term as nefarious as it is obnoxious.
Stop Infantilizing Young Adults
Humans are not hapless children until the age of 22, yet we increasingly treat them as such. Once they learn how to drive, if not a little before, we should encourage young adults to go apprentice/intern in fields they're interested in for school credit.
I wouldn't be surprised if this also helps the mental health crisis. It isn't natural to sit in a fluorescent cage for 18 years, eating chemicals and microplastics, contributing nothing to society. Getting out into the world is what we're meant to do. Let's do it.
Encourage Specialization
On that note, specialization is the basis for civilization. We all need a certain amount of background knowledge, but we're focusing far too much on breadth over depth.
Here's the thing: we all have our zone of genius. The ancients literally believed the "genius" or the "Muse" was a spirit who would come give you ideas, but you needed to prove yourself worthy. If you were never holding a paintbrush, why would she pick you to bring her painting to life? It wouldn't make sense.
From a purely practical perspective, what does this belief system do? It encourages people to practice! To work hard in whichever field they are trying to excel.
Gianlorenzo Bernini created this sculpture, which depicts Aeneas fleeing Troy with his father and son, when he was just 21 years old:
The harsh reality is that we're not all capable of such a feat, no matter how much we practice.
An equally harsh reality is that, if Bernini lived today, he'd be almost as incapable of creating this as I am--merely because of how we're structuring the lives of our youth.
Look at the average day of a high school student: they are outrageously busy, yet somehow have little to show for it. They rise before the sun, often doing some sports-related activity. They spend the next 8 hours in class, then do more athletics afterward. They come home, do homework, and go to bed.
No Muse in her right mind would look down and think, "Now there's someone who can bring my idea to life!"
By age 16, schools should have taught students all the background knowledge they need to know. At that point, it's time to let them go off and specialize. If they exhibit a talent, interest, or affinity for a certain subject, let them go apprentice or intern in that industry for school credit. Their courses should no longer be "Subject 101," endured by all. Let them build real skills, whether it's in engineering or linguistics.
The students will be better off, and so will society as a whole. Rather than squander years of human potential, we all benefit from what they produce.
By Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them
I frequently find myself justifying how much time I waste reading the news, but the reality is that I get little satisfaction from it. For all the hours I spend, I get only a vague sense of pride in being well-informed.
On the other hand, when I read fiction (or even nonfiction, like the book that prompted this post), my brain instantly shifts into "create" mode. And in my line of work, all that matters is what I create.
This is a very clear "by their fruits shall ye know them" situation: some inputs are objectively better than others.
Reading textbooks is like reading the news. It feels important, and heaven knows you can spend countless hours on the task, but are you ever happy afterward? Do you feel a sense of pride or growth? Never.
But pick up a real book? Your life will never be the same. Whether you love it or hate it, real texts make you a deeper thinker, simultaneously more grounded in reality and freed from the shackles of the present.
I swear this isn't all a sales pitch, but I happen to be annotating classic novels for Vocabbett. If you want to dive into the best books in the world, but are a tad intimidated, read them with me. I define difficult words at the bottom of each page, explain the symbolism, historical references, and everything else. You will love it!
Good luck. Ave atque vale.
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