The Primer Class

In the old days, the primer was the first hurdle in education. (Just so you know, the word is pronounced with a short "i" in clean defiance of normal rules of American English pronunciation. And, there is a horrid level of negligence over pronunciation these days, I admit. However, I must begin by passing on what I know to be correct; also, it would distract me too greatly, should I be misunderstood as discussing painting supplies.)

The primer class of the middle nineteenth century spent their days staring at the wooden paddle or paper page that contained the 26 letters and accompanying pictures of items beginning with each letter, as an aid to remembering the sound of the letter. When the schoolmaster or mistress called the primer class to recite, they lined up, standing, to identify a letter and how it sounded. Then as now, one had to learn the rules to function among those already trained up. Then as now, one had to accept that certain exceptions often apply. Long a for ape, short a for ant....another a for abandon, and another sort of a for art.
The primer class of life is where we learn that things exist in conflicting pairs: good and evil, truth and falsehood, right and wrong, back and forth, the high road and the low. People in charge of modern educational systems want to skip the primer class, to forge ahead into learning by experience. The newer motto is, I believe, that "experience is the best teacher." I cannot agree with this, across the board. Adam and Eve had the most of human experience, walking in the cool of the evening in Eden with God...and that experience was not enough, apparently, to convince them to reject the serpent's offer.
The new education that has been in place for decades now, has slipped (I believe it has deliberately steered) in the direction of learning fundamentals in "creative" ways...and many of these innovations, instead of supplementing substance with fun and fancy, end up substituting the flashy for the factual, and skipping the most intrinsically valuable part of learning the ABCs or 1-2-3s by main power of memory: discipline. Methodical, objective attack on a problem. The training to assess the plain parts. All of these give a starting context, a jumping off point, from which brainstorming can be productive.

I am one who had the expanding experience of creative problem solving in my school days, so I can see the value in that. However, I deem that I have that appreciation, because I had first the old-school teachers in my elementary years, who drilled me in non-negotiables, as if they were non-negotiables. What a relief, to have a foundation that doesn't move!
I think the importance of keeping a certain 'fundamentalism' in the teaching of educational fundamentals, is akin to always using the dock to enter the lake. If you get confused, you can always swim back to the dock, which is visible out of the water, and regroup before taking a better aim. But, if instead everything is negotiable and adjustable, starting with how you learn to read, we will wind up with a populace that doesn't even know how to think anymore. I am not referring to what opinions we hold, but to how we employ our minds to choose (dare I  hope, reason?) our opinions. A main indicator that we are already there, is in the near-absence of true debate or discussion anymore. Oh, we use these terms, but what we see our leaders engaged in is more accurately argument, fighting, and vocal brawling.

I am only one voice, but I hold these truths to be self-evident and widely disdained: that some of the old ways are the best ways, and before we gave them up, A-B-C for 'whole language', right and wrong for moral relativism...we really had a good thing going.