This article offers a skeletal critique of the pedagogical theory and the teaching practices arising from the work of educational innovator, Benjamin Bloom. Professor Bloom's theory and method have overtly and covertly insinuated themselves into North American educational practice over the past half-century. Their impact and influence have been…

Asserts that formal education should impart tacit knowledge--a complex set of understandings one must possess to live and function successfully in society--as well as traditional disciplines, theories, and cognitive skills. Discusses modeling attitudes, values, ways of life, and democracy to students, and what should be expected of a particular…

Traces current educational philosophy and practices to 19th-century philosophers who proposed the "mudsill theory," the notion that ordinary children could not be intellectually successful and must be coerced and prepared for work by compulsory schooling. Points to the success of relatively underschooled self-sufficient Lancaster Amish…