I don't agree completely with Mr. Lawrence's reasoning.  It seems that his argument centers on human interaction and intelligence being the product of input.  Thus the "garbage in, garbage out" analysis. I would argue that rather than wax nostalgic over a time we cannot return to, it is more productive to consider how to handle the world that we have.  Mr. Lawrence comments that children in school do not feel the need to learn nor are made to learn mundane things like times tables.  This is a result of educational philosophy that if students are able to analyze and synthesize data, then the mundane things, like addition, multiplication, spelling, writing, will fall into place necessarily.  Most students are apt to collapse when asked to perform these mundane tasks in isolation, or even as part of their "higher order thinking".  They simply have not mastered basic thinking.  They are, for the most part, houses built on mud.And...(Read Full Post)