Stuart Buck analyzes an argument on education: “Knowing a lot of stuff may seem harmless, albeit insufficient, but the problem is that efforts to shape schooling around this goal, dressed up with pretentious labels like “cultural literacy,” have the effect of taking time away from more meaningful objectives, such as knowing how to think.”

Mr. Buck points out the odd idea that learning things doesn’t aid a person in thinking. He says, “The real problem with Alfie Kohn’s argument here is not just that he’s wrong, but that he assumes that he’s so obviously and indisputably right that no one could possibly disagree with him. To Kohn, trying to get kids to learn facts somehow prevents or precludes critical thinking — and this is so obvious that no one could really think that it’s important for students to learn facts.”