Education: Content and Competencies

The two main components of K-12 education

When we think of K-12 education, most people envision children learning things like math, science, geography, history, etc. These are called Content subjects.

In addition, there is also a separate category of subjects called Competencies. Another word for competencies is skills. Some basic skills that are expected to be taught in K-12 are the ability to read and to write.

Note that in certain cases a subject area can have overlaps. For example, learning math content is interwoven with learning math competencies (e.g., learning how to add two numbers in your head).

This all sounds simple enough, but the devil is in the details…

A few words about Content —

Exactly who determines what the taught content is?

The Left is very aware of this enormous opportunity, so has gone to great lengths over the last few decades to aggressively and thoroughly control the content our children are being taught — i.e., the curricula.

A few of many examples where the WHAT (content) is extremely important are:

WHAT is the truth about the origins of the universe?

WHAT is the truth about evolution?

WHAT is the truth about climate change?

WHAT is the truth about our energy options?

WHAT is the truth about American history?

In some of these matters, we do not definitively know the answer. In such situations, this should be clearly acknowledged — and the children should be comprehensively and objectively informed about the various alternatives. Students should then be encouraged to use Critical Thinking to arrive at their own conclusions.

None of that is happening in US public schools. Instead, the curricula convey one-sided stories, falsely making them seem like Facts — when they actually are disguised progressive ideology.

Inexplicably, those on the Right have paid MUCH LESS attention to curricula. In doing so they have effectively ceded WHAT our children are being taught to Marxists and worse. The consequences of this neglect to our children and our nation are extraordinarily bad — and we are seeing the results of this every day.

A few words about Competencies —

Who is it that determines what competencies are taught, and how? Again the Left has aggressively stepped in to control these. Think Social Emotional Learning (SEL).

There are several competencies that K-12 children would benefit from being properly taught. The North Carolina Portrait of a Graduate has a superior list:

• Critical Thinking  

• Communication

• Personal Responsibility

• Collaboration  

• Flexibility  

• Empathy  

• Learner’s Mindset

The problem in NC (and in all other states) is that none of these are formally and properly integrated into the curricula, with the possible exception of empathy: SEL. (However, SEL has become a cover for a LOT more than empathy — e.g., see here.) Once again the Left is out-maneuvering the Right, as conservatives are paying way too little attention to the curricula (content and competencies).

Arguably the most important K-12 competency is the ability and interest to do Critical Thinking. The benefits are simply astounding — e.g., see my Report. Regretfully, based on what I could find, not a single State formally and properly teaches K-12 students how to be Critical Thinkers.

What this means is that Left is invited to fill this void: so they come in and teach the opposite of Critical Thinking: conformity. And that is exactly what they are doing!

Conformity is carefully and surreptitiously conveyed to K-12 students in many ways: adhere to what is currently deemed to be politically correct, defer to experts, go along with consensus views, accept what computer projections tell us — all without asking questions.

Summary —

A good question that arises is: which is more important to properly teach our children: Content or Competencies? Both are important, and both must be done right.

However, our current K-12 education system is just focused on teaching Content — and that means Content dictated by the Left. What limited Competencies are taught are likewise carefully controlled by the Left.

This needs to stop. Yesterday.

PS — One person who unequivocally gets this and is in a tight race to be in a position of power to actually make it happen, is Michele Morrow. Please support her, because if she wins it will have profoundly beneficial national consequences…

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