Rules of Acquisition

A concept has been growing in the world

Of educational philosophy

Across the last few decades, so it seems.

The thought is not explicit, never named,

Yet underlies a raft of bad ideas

Which politicians dump on teachers' heads.

The myth is this: the young need not be taught

Those names and dates, the arithmetic facts,

Since those can all be gotten from machines.

Instead of that we'll teach them how to think--

To process information that they have,

And save much stress and heartache; school is FUN!

The fault is in assuming that these things

Are separate functions of the learning mind.

Not so. The skills of gaining knowledge are

Entwined with skills of organizing it,

And these share space with skills of synthesis.

They are not separate things; they are all one.

One cannot learn to argue well unless

One knows some words and how they can connect.

One cannot build until one knows the blocks.

All science, music, all creative seeds

Require a ground of knowledge so they'll grow.

There is no short-cut path to wisdom.

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Anyone who says you can learn a 4-year college degree's worth of stuff in 18 months, take the tests whenever you want on your schedule, without having to quit your job or anything, is LYING. There is no magic that can accomplish this compression; not even the holy sacred magic of "Online"-ness.