tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071269885026207975.post641996205225175543..comments2023-07-29T05:17:13.465-04:00Comments on Build a School: What Do You Know?Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04454838353498233230noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071269885026207975.post-51262457941300126192008-04-25T06:27:00.000-04:002008-04-25T06:27:00.000-04:00The link about Idol helping "Africa" was interesti...The link about Idol helping "Africa" was interesting. Just to help out with the geography lesson, there are 54 countries in Africa. (I probably could have named 10-15 if I put my mind to it, and I currently live in Africa. Who knows? I like to think I could have come up with more than that, but I guess I'm not much better than most Americans.) <BR/><BR/>As for the question of the day: What should our kids know when they leave high school? As a language teacher myself, I would like to think that they would have at least a functional ability in one language other than English, though a functiional ability in English would also be a good start (watch any 3-minute clip of our President for reasons why). I agree with Jeff in that skill and attitudes are more important than concrete knowledge. But since, as Jeff said, there are some things we expect our citizens to know, I suggest, as a starting point, a book I picked up years ago called "The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy" (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988) which has in it things like Mythology and Folklore, Literaure (World and American), Philosophy & Religion, Politics (again, World and American), Geography (and it even mentions that France is a country), Science, Medicine, and others. I don't suggest that this book be all we teach our kids, of course. But as a baseline, it seems like a good place to start.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com