Lessons and Myths on Basic Education

The staff at InformEd has assembled 18 myths that quite a number of Americans believe. Some of these myths are indeed a bit contentious, as admitted by the InformEd staff, but a reasonable effort has been made to support their conclusions. These cannot be easily dismissed. Take, for example, the belief that some people have, not just Americans, that private schools are better than public schools. Do the data really support this belief? Apparently it does not:

Above figure copied from "18 Myths People Believe About Education"

Another example is the impression that experience does not matter in teaching as if only content mastery matters. Experience does make a difference:

Above figure copied from "18 Myths People Believe About Education"

To see the rest of the 18 myths, please visit "18 Myths People Believe About Education".

Brian Langley has likewise recently compiled five lessons on basic education. These lessons are based on quite an extensive bibliography (52 references are cited):


We do need to be informed when it comes to basic education for the simple reason that each and every one of us is connected to basic education. We all have impressions and beliefs about education. In order to sort problems and challenges correctly, we need to be aware of which impressions we have really have a sound basis and which ones are in fact very wrong.




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