[Following is the script or copy for a short graphic video with the same title; find it on YouTube]

improve-education.org presents

HOW TO TEACH ANYTHING & EVERYTHING
3 little rules
——————
First, decide to teach it.

You make a list of things you want your students to know. You commit yourself to making it happen.

This decision is huge. It’s half the battle.

By way of contrast, look at what we have now. The Education Establishment doesn’t believe in teaching very much. Dumbing-down is a way of life.

The Education Establishment seems to fear knowledge the way Victorian prudes feared sex. What are they afraid of? (Queen Victoria Does Not Approve!)

Second rule, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition.

Teaching something once is not teaching it at all. Teach everything over and over.

Look at this baseball field. How many cuts? At least three passes– from different directions–did the job right.

Look at the shine on this Rolls-Royce. How many coats of paint? At least five.

The idea that there is a lesson plan that allows you to teach a subject once is silly.

Think about that person you met last week? An hour later you didn’t remember the name. Are your students going to recall 10 or 20 facts that you might mention in an hour

Be efficient. Be ergonomic. Use mnemonics.

Rule 3: Every fact must be tangled in a web with other facts, associations and connections.

Consider one example that can stand in for a million.

Naturally you want your students to know the name of the Atlantic Ocean…

You point at a map as you talk about Columbus sailing across the ATLANTIC OCEAN…

Later, you talk about the hurricane coming up the ATLANTIC OCEAN toward the mid-ATLANTIC states….

You talk about the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock after crossing the ATLANTIC OCEAN…

Later, in science and geology, you talk about the Gulf Stream moving northward through the ATLANTIC OCEAN…

You talk about airplanes and Lindbergh’s flight across the ATLANTIC OCEAN….Etc….Etc….Etc.

Everything you might want to teach can be taught as part of science, history, geography, current events, reading, even math, music, and art. Or because it’s really interesting!!!

Maybe in a year you hope to teach 200 facts. That’s one for each school day. To do that you mention each fact on 10 different days. Which means you mention 10 facts in a day. So Easy.

But when school lets out for summer, you’ll know these children will remember the 200 facts for the rest of their lives.

A sage on a stage is exactly what students need, want, and deserve.

Because facts are fun; and knowledge is power.

People who know a lot have an advantage over those who know only a little.

Not teaching knowledge to kids is a kind of child abuse.

for related articles, see Improve-Education.org

26: How To Teach History, Etc.
32: Teaching Science
39: How To Teach Physics, Etc.
47: Teach One Fact Each Day

[The background of this video is that many schools are adopting Constructivism, which makes teachers stop teaching. This video is opposed to Constructivism. For an essay on the problems in this fad, see “34: The Con in Constructivism.”

Author Bio: Bruce Deitrick Price is the founder of Improve-Education.org, an outspoken education and intellectual site. One focus is reading; see “42: Reading Resources.” Another focus is education reform; see “38: Saving Public Schools.” Price is an author, artist and poet. His fifth book is “THE EDUCATION ENIGMA–What Happened to American Education.”

Category: Education
Keywords: K-12, public schools, discipline, standards, knowledge, learning, teach, constructivism, memory