Alexandria Catholic School - no critical thinking??
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Anonymous
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DD is in 7th grade. Her Social Studies and Science classes are pathetic. Sole focus on rote memorization. Zero application of concepts or critical thinking.
The text books they use have plenty of exercises on both, but the teachers skip right over that stuff and just want the kids to recall/memorize facts. Is this typical at dmv catholic schools? Or do we just have outlier teachers/school? |
Anonymous
| Here we go… |
Anonymous
| Memorization is a key part of domination in sportsball. |
Anonymous
| Find another school. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| Children need to know facts before they can apply them. |
Anonymous
+1 You cannot critically think about a topic unless you have a basis of knowledge at your disposal. Otherwise - it is basing thinking on emotion and preference. |
Anonymous
It's a Catholic school this is at all of them. How in the world did you not know this before signing your kid up? |
Anonymous
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If it's important to you, just pick up a real history book (not a textbook, but perhaps a volume of Oxford History of the United States, Gordon Wood's Radicalism of the American Revolution, Eric Foner's Reconstruction, etc.) and an algebra-based physics book or a chemistry book and teach your child at home.
Your kid will be going to high school with these same kids in two years, and her grades will be based on how she performs in relation to her peers. She has the opportunity to speed way ahead of her peers right now by learning analytical skills they won't be developing until later. |
Anonymous
This. The notion that little kids need a lot of "critical thinking" is bogus. Little kids need to build a solid foundation of factual knowledge. |
Anonymous
Your school has at least one - hopefully just the one - outlier parent. |
Anonymous
It’s middle school. 7th graders are not “little kids” and should be starting to learn critical thinking skills. Good grief. |
Anonymous
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Yes, memorizing mundane and intricate facts is absolutely essential. Maybe one day they’ll invent something where kids can easily retrieve esoteric information at will, but until that day, rote memorization must be the focus over analysis and critical thinking.
It’s also a binary choice — rote memorization OR critical thinking. I understand why the school chose the former. |
Anonymous
| Seems to me some school systems don't value critical thinking. Across the river in MCPS, it was a cornerstone of learning, of a complete education. At our FCPS, in history, english lit or any subject, skills in critical thinking aren't developed or valued. |
Anonymous
| It might be blamed on the military culture predominate in NoVa. Not a lot of thinking outside the box. |