Our+View+of+the+Author

**Our Views of the Author's Thinking** **Patrick** My first impression of Dr. William Bennett was not very strong. His philosophies seem to be rooted more deeply in realism and essentialism, where mine lay more in pragmatism, existentialism, and progressivism. In addition, Dr. Bennett's views seem to be very conservative compared to what I believe mine to be. However, I find that I do emphasize character education and virtues within my classroom. This is a craft Bennett feels to be a very important part of education. Bennett, Finn, and Cribb wrote, "Intellectual and character development go hand in hand. Certain qualities of good character are necessary for academic achievement; if your child goes through school without such personal character traits...his grades almost certainly will suffer" (Bennett 67). I agree that character education is valuable and presents the environment essential for learning to occur.

The fact that Dr. Bennett presents an opposing side to many current trends in public education caused me to reflect upon many of these issues and see them from another angle. For example, I have found an interest in Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Dr. Bennett finds this theory to be, "mostly nonsense" and warns that, "the scientific community has found no evidence to support the idea that there are several different sorts of 'intelligences'" (Bennett, Finn, & Cribb 598). Another current trend in education, particularly in science education, is discovery learning. Although Bennett agrees there is some merit to it, he argues in //The Educated Child// that discovery learning is, truly inefficient; allows students to end up with wrong information, and it becomes the vehicle to reject the idea that there are important skills and information that all children should learn (592-593). Finally, on the topic of cooperative learning, Dr. Bennett states, "The underlying problem with cooperative learning is that it can devalue individual achievement" (Bennett, Finn, & Crib 599). While I may see a different view to these and other trends discussed in //The Educated Child//, his views have opened an interesting discussion in my head.

**Tanya** I feel that there is a need to include more character education in today's classrooms. Religion use to play a huge role in shaping a family's values and added a lot to their character. Today, many families have steered away from religion or have faded some of their religious beliefs into a blended family. Although I personally feel that Dr. Bennett is far too conservative, I also see that we do need to instill character education into our classrooms. His ideas remind me of a 1950's mindset that is not necessarily up to date with our changing culture. We need to focus on the "what" part of our curriculum without losing site of the "how". Dr. Bennett believes that teachers waste too much time trying to teach children how to learn instead of sticking strictly to the concepts and data. I feel that if our students are experiencing difficulty learning, we need to first teach them how they learn before we start inundating them with material.

On page 17 of //The Educated Child//, Dr. Bennett simply states "You teach by example." If he believes so strongly in this statement, why was he such an avid gambler for so long? It sets a poor example for our children. I find Dr. Bennett to be racist and contradictory at times. In September of 2005, Dr. Bennett defended the following statement that was printed in //The New York Times:// "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. ... That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down." What a horrible thing to say and instead of apologizing, he restated it. The fact that he is even mildly using the topic of abortion in such a way is very contradictory to his conservative Republican beliefs.

On the other hand, I do respect that he has devoted the majority of his life to helping American children get an improved education. His ideas are not popular ot trendy, but they do hold merit with most educated people. National and international test scores have shown us that American children are missing some basic information that should have been taught to them at an early age. Our scores have wavered in Science and Mathematics for more than a decade. Dr. Bennett does provide the professionals in the field of education with a challenge that must be answered. Find a way to better educate America's children. We may not be "left behind" but we are "falling behind".

Summary
Although many of the conservative ideas of Dr. Bennett's may not necessarily reflect our beliefs, many of his ideas related to education are influential and supportive of a positive education.  Furthermore, his traditional ideas reflect a growing belief that society needs to go back to basics, involve parents in the educational process, and consider traditional methods of solving problems. Dr. Bennett has held influential positions as the head of the National Endowment for the Humanities,Secretary of the Department of Education, and the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. His education and experiences are valuable and his ideas should, at the least be considered when looking at education reform.