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Podcast: The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast
Episode: Natalie Wexler’s Critique of the ‘Knowledge Gap’ in Schools
Description: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Sam Weaver discuss Natalie Wexler’s argument that many American elementary schools have abandoned the responsibility of teaching factual content, and that this rejection of the importance of knowledge is exacerbating the nation’s reading crisis.
Among the topics covered:
The outrageous failure of American schools to teach students how to read and to kindle in them a love of reading;
Natalie Wexler’s argument that this failure is related to the failure of schools to teach basic factual knowledge;
Wexler’s view that phonics is necessary but not sufficient for teach...