For generations, schools have aimed to introduce students to a broad range of topics through curriculum that ensure that they will at least have some acquaintance with most areas of human knowledge by the time they graduate. Yet such broad knowledge can't help but be somewhat superficial--and, as Kieran Egan argues, it omits a crucial aspect of…

Nearly everyone who has tried to describe an image of the educated person, from Plato to the present, includes at least two requirements: first, educated people must be widely knowledgeable and, second, they must know something in depth. The authors would like to advocate a somewhat novel approach to "learning in depth" (LiD) that seems…

Suggests reasons why education is difficult and contentious, arguing that educational thinking draws on only three fundamental ideas (socializing the young, shaping the minds by a disciplined academic curriculum, and facilitating the development of students' potential) and that the problems in education are due to these ideas, which are fatally…

Discusses four types of historical understanding and argues for a developmental sequence in historical understanding. Suggests two frameworks: (1) the story-form framework (ages up to 8) and; (2) a romantic framework (ages 8-15), sketching a curriculum based on each. Argues that these forms are necessary for acquiring more sophisticated levels of…