At a school today, watching a day unfold, and got to thinking:

which is worse, back to basics, where kids are skilled and drilled, where scripted lessons ensure a scary homogeneity, where imagination and creativity are irrelevant? Or empty progressive pedagogy, where kids are given freedom to choose, projects to do, things to play with, but without any follow-up, such that they’re just messing around and not learning anything?

A few years ago I might’ve argued for the latter — choice and creativity trump scripts — but now I’m not so sure. Turning kids lose, even kids getting a ton of help from home, completely undermines what school should be about. And it sets up all sorts of problems for later — you’ve played but you haven’t learned — which will undermine your next academic experience from the beginning.