EducationNews.org

Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University

1)  Lisa, first of all, what got you interested in education and teaching?

From one perspective, you could say I stumbled upon my career as a school owner and director; in another sense it is the perfect harmony of my lifelong interests.

The "chance" element came in 1996, when I had just graduated with a degree in philosophy and was contacted (through mutual friends) by some families in California who were fed up with traditional schools and were seeking a private teacher for their children. I came home one day to a message on my answering machine informing me of this unusual opportunity.

I very quickly became enthusiastic about the prospect: I would be given the opportunity to educate children as they might and ought to be educated, entirely unlike I had been educated in public schools, and as I had been attempting to educate myself as an adult.I interviewed, was hired, and packed my bags to begin the adventure.

I can only describe those early years of home-schooling as a magical experience. The children were wildly enthusiastic about learning: with my guidance, they became logical, articulate and eager writers; they devoured classics of world literature and learned to appreciate them with intellectual sophistication and deep emotion; they progressed to the limit of their capability rather than being held back by classmates; etc.—and, as it might and ought to be, they sincerely loved to learn.

I was convinced that the principles that made that home-school experience so "magical" could be translated into a school environment. So, in 2001 my ex-husband and I started VanDamme Academy, a school dedicated to giving children a real education. The school was to provide all that—and only that—which was necessary to help the children mature into informed, thoughtful, rational, life-loving adults. Rather than endless, fill-in-the-bubble busywork, rather than agenda-laden discussions of current events, rather than classes on everything from cooking to citizenship to clay making, rather than countless play-days meant to make the supposed drudgery of learning palatable, we would just educate them, in the core curriculum. That has been my ever-improving goal for the last ten years.

Though in a sense I stumbled upon my career, with that out-of-the-blue call from California, it is the perfect integration of my love of children and my passion for philosophy. I have the opportunity to contemplate, research, write about, and then apply my most deeply held philosophic convictions to the proper education of children, and then the joy of observing the results in year after year of students.

2) Who has influenced you?

The greatest influence on my philosophic views broadly was the philosopher Ayn Rand, and the greatest influence on my educational philosophy was Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand's intellectual heir and the father of one of my first students.

I discovered Ayn Rand in college and was awed by her philosophic insights, which, in contrast to all I had learned in my philosophy classes, made sense, were consistent with my life experiences, gave new order and intelligibility to the world around me, and identified rational principles by which I could guide my actions in order to live a fulfilled and joyful life.

I learned from Ayn Rand both the importance of having a philosophy to guide your life, and what a rational, life-affirming philosophy would look like.

Leonard Peikoff's course "Philosophy of Education" applied Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism to educational theory, and it is that course which has been the most formative influence of my career.The course identified a proper definition of "education," explaining the basic necessity and purpose of education. It identified the principles that define which courses a good education should comprise, and the basic methodology that should be followed in teaching those courses.

It contrasted a rational approach to education with that of other historical movements in education, such as Dewey's progressive method and Prussian education. It showed me, in essence, what had been wrong with my own education and how to redeem education for my students.

3) Now, your work focuses on the application of Objectivism to educational theory. How exactly do you go about doing that?

Objectivism is so called because central to the philosophy is the concept of objectivity. Objectivity, according to Ayn Rand, is a method of acquiring knowledge by reasoning solely based on the facts of reality and in accordance with the laws of logic.

Our goal at VanDamme Academy is to objectively, rationally define what a child needs to know in order to flourish as a knowledgeable, efficacious and happy adult, and to impart that knowledge in a way that ensures it is held by the students objectively.

This can be contrasted first with the "every opinion is sacred" variety of teaching, which applauds children for taking their own approach to a math problem even if it yields 5 as the answer to 2+2, which allows for "creative spelling" to encourage the free-spiritedness and self-esteem of the child, which encourages students to embrace their own views on literature, history, or current events—whatever those views, and however divorced from facts, logic, and reality.

Many students transferring to VanDamme Academy from public schools have found it initially jarring (but ultimately empowering) when they are asked to give clear, thorough reasons for their judgments.

It can also be contrasted with the "just repeat after me" approach, which has children mindlessly mouthing abstract knowledge, whether asking them to use scientific concepts they can speak but certainly not explain, feeding them analysis of literary classics with themes far outside their realm of knowledge and experience, or having them form opinions on controversial political issues though they have little knowledge or experience to bring to bear on them.

Even if the principles they happen to mouth are true in reality, that truth is irrelevant to them unless they know why they are true—unless they have the full context necessary to thoroughly grasp what they are saying.

At VanDamme Academy, we strive to teach the students the right material in the right order, an order that allows them to grasp the material at hand fully and independently. We want them neither to be spouting nor parroting unsubstantiated opinions—we want them to be thinking.

4) Tell us about your views about "The Hierarchy of Knowledge"

Hierarchy refers to the proper order of teaching—concepts are hierarchical, building continuously from the less abstract to the ever more abstract. It is widely accepted by educators that there is such an order in math. If a first-grade teacher, instead of teaching her students addition and subtraction, attempted first to teach them algebra or calculus, the students clearly would learn nothing. Being unable to grasp the basic operations of mathematics with specific numbers, they would be completely unable to grasp the idea of a variable that abstracts away from any particular number—let alone advanced equations involving complex algebraic calculations.

But most educators commit this error, in less extreme and far less noticeable form, throughout all subjects—that is, the error of teaching certain content before students have the context necessary to grasp it.

A classic violation of hierarchy in the humanities is a "current events" discussions in elementary school. Students are asked to vote for a presidential candidate, to state their opinion on euthanasia, or to campaign for an environmental cause.

But unless political views are regarded as arbitrary, baseless, and subjective, by what right does a child have an opinion on such a highly abstract, complex question? Rational answers to such questions depend on a knowledge of history and science, experience of the world and of life in society, and logical thinking methods that should be gained over a lifetime of education. These questions are the province of mature, informed adulthood.

A proper education respects the hierarchy of knowledge. At each stage, the teacher must make sure that the students are in possession of the context necessary for them to have a real, solid, independent grasp of the material at hand. Otherwise, the schools produce children ignorant of the knowledge that should inform their judgments, and spouting arbitrary opinions (which usually parrot the current cultural trends).

5)  In one of your articles, you criticized E.D. Hirsch's work. What exactly do you think is wrong with his perspective?

Hirsch is the author of Cultural Literacy and the popular series What Your [1^st-6^th] Grader Needs to Know, as well as the creator of the Core Knowledge Foundation. His goal is for schools to produce students who are "culturally literate"—which means that they "possess the basic information needed to thrive in the modern world." Hirsch says that cultural literacy is the prerequisite to effective communication among the members of society, that a shared educational background in the most culturally relevant topics provides all men with a common cultural heritage.

To that end, Hirsch advocates a universal, clearly defined curriculum that identifies the common stock of concepts that are to be taught to all students of a given grade.

The Core Knowledge Foundation recommends, for example, the following sequence of concepts in science: In Kindergarten, magnetism and the idea of forces we cannot see; in first grade, the basic concept of atoms; in second grade, the laws of attraction; in fourth, protons neutrons and electrons; in fifth, electron paths and the periodic table; and in sixth, the conservation of and transfer of energy.

The essential problem with this and many other recommendations of the Core Knowledge curriculum is the violation of hierarchy.Children are being given a "basic concept" of atoms in the first grade, "learning" about the charge of protons and electrons in fourth grade, and being introduced to the periodic table in fifth grade.

But consider the sequence in which these items of knowledge actually came to be known. The proof of the existence of atoms came in the late 19th century and depended on centuries of scientific knowledge, including Faraday's work with electricity, Avogadro's discoveries about molecules, and Dalton's experiments in chemistry, whose work in turn depended on the many scientists before them.

At VanDamme Academy, we wouldn't dream of teaching students about atoms before junior high, and until they have learned the long history of physics that made possible the discovery of atoms and therefore can thoroughly grasp the arguments for their existence.

Hirsch stresses the importance of a core body of facts to be part of a universal curriculum, but the problem is that his program treats all facts as if they were created equal. A fact, at any level of abstraction, is merely a fact. But for a child to really grasp something as fact, he must understand it: which means, he must possess the prerequisite information that makes it intelligible and he must be able to integrate with the rest of his knowledge. Anything else is the mindless mouthing of dogmatic commandments from an educational authority.

6)   In the public schools, teachers are increasingly asked to work with children who are autistic, or who have mental retardation or who are visually impaired or hearing impaired. Is this being fair to the education of the other students? Is this being fair to the teachers? And what would Ayn Rand say?

This is just one symptom of many problems that result from state-run education. Every classroom policy, whether the issue is class size, "no child left behind," sex education, teaching to the test, is the product of political pressure, and becomes a standard to which all schools must conform. The parents have no choice among educational alternatives, and sending their child to private school is the only way to escape these mandated policies.

I have no doubt, given the pattern in other industries, that if education were privatized there would be not only schools that offered parents the opportunity to place their child in a classroom uninhibited by students with intellectual or physical impairments, but also a proliferation of schools whose impassioned purpose was to provide an environment to accommodate those with such impairments.

7) You run an "Academy " that attempts to provide a "good education"? How do you personally define a "good education" and how do you go about measuring your success?

The core curriculum comprises the body of knowledge necessary to arm children for a successful life. My goal is to ensure that my student emerge with a firm hold on that knowledge and the ability to harness it for their own happiness.

I want my students to graduate having read, analyzed, deeply understood, and relished classics of world literature, so that they have experienced vivid concretizations of a variety of timeless, abstract ideas.

I want them to know the essential progression of Western history, so that they see on a grand scale the consequences of men's ideas and actions, and understand the foundations of freedom.

I want them to know the basic principles of science in a real, personal way and not as memorized scientific jargon, so they see that the universe operates by intelligible principles and understand how man has discovered those principles and uses them to promote human welfare.

And I want them to be able to have al the tools to express themselves: a thorough knowledge of grammar, an expansive vocabulary, and the ability to present their ideas logically, clearly, and articulately.

If they graduate with a mastery of this core body of knowledge, they truly are ready to conquer the world. They are capable of a depth and clarity of thought that will prepare them to make rational judgments in every life decision they encounter. And with the power to make good decisions comes the power to live a fulfilled life.

My first students are now in their early 20's. One is pursuing a PhD in psychology, another started his own hedge fund, another just completed his fifth year of graduate studies in physics at Stanford, and the last just completed her first novel. It is not the scale of their achievements that makes me consider myself a success as their teacher—it is the fact that they have the resources, drive, and passion to achieve their goals, on any scale.

8)  What do you see wrong with Mortimer Adler's Paideia proposal and Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer's book "The Well Trained Mind"?  

The essential problem with both is again the issue of hierarchy. Most advocates of Classical education, including Adler's "Great Books" program and "Paideia Proposal" and the Bauers' guide to classical education in the home, violate the necessary order of learning.

The Paideia Proposal holds as the essence of a liberal education "seminars," in which a teacher merely guides the student's independent grappling with the fundamental, philosophic ideas presented in the Great Books.

The problem with this approach is that it is inordinately focused on questions involving higher-level abstractions that young students are not capable of understanding, and on a method of learning that is hierarchically inappropriate for children and young teenagers.

Like Hirsch's core knowledge catalogue, The Well-Trained Mind fails to differentiate facts at various levels of abstraction. In the first years of schooling, the child is supplied with all the facts known to man—no matter how these facts actually came to be known, and thus no matter how these facts can be truly understood firsthand. Thus the book suggests, for example, that 6 to 9-year-olds be introduced to Dickens, Jonathan Swift, Wordsworth and Tennyson. It suggests that 10 to 13-year-olds read about and debate such issues as the atomic bomb, the Cold War, and the New Deal.

It recommends that high school students read Aristotle's Physics, Einstein's Relativity, and Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time. If knowledge is just a grab bag of facts that can be presented to any child at any stage of development, nothing bars a 2nd grader from British social commentary, the 5th grader from complex, controversial political debate, and the high school freshman from abstract discussion of the nature of space and time.

I discuss the problems of the Classical approach to education in greater depth in my article "The False Promise of Classical Education," published in The Objective Standard.

9) Do you have a web site that our readers can learn more about your thoughts, ideas and philosophical beliefs?

 The school's website is www.vandammacademy.com. I also write a periodic newsletter in which I explain the principles that define the VanDamme Academy approach and share the successes of that method. Interested readers can sign up for the newsletter on the homepage of the website, or read the articles on my blog, www.pedagogicallycorrect.com.

Published April 24, 2008