"Foreword
This book, written by experts from eight nations, explains why imparting specific shared knowledge in early grades is important for achieving high levels of citizen competence and high levels of equality and equity. As the result of a worldwide collaboration, it is an open-access book. It is free to everyone everywhere. Special thanks is owed to Prof. Paul Kirschner of the Netherlands for herding into a unity these far-flung distinguished scholars, scientists, and public servants. Thank you, Paul!
This international effort may come to be seen in the future as the sign of a new beginning for teaching young pupils—a farewell to individualistic “child-centered” doctrines, and a ringing in of a new, more effective early education in modern democracies. The science presented in the book is up to date, some of it very recent. Its general principles go back several years. These had their most memorable expression in a 1994 resolution approved unanimously by the Parliament of Norway—translated into English as follows by Prof. Gudmund Hernes:
-It is a tenet of popular enlightenment [i.e., the enlightenment of a whole people] that shared frames of reference must be the common property of all the people—indeed must be an integral part of general education—to escape avoidable differences in competence that can result in social inequality and be abused by undemocratic forces. -Those who do not share the background information taken for granted in public discourse will often overlook the point or miss the meaning. Newcomers to a country who are not immersed in its frames of reference often remain outsiders because others cannot take for granted what they know and can do; they are in constant need of extra explanations.
-Common background knowledge is thus at the core of a national network of communication between members of a democratic community. It makes it possible to fathom complex messages, and to interpret new ideas, situations, and challenges. Education plays a leading role in passing on this common background information—the culture everybody must be familiar with if society is to remain democratic and its citizens sovereign. I have not found a better summary of what this present collaborative effort has documented with the latest experimental results. A foreword is not the place to develop a full-throated attack on the individualistic “child-centered” approach of recent decades and its incorrect empirical assumptions. (...)" Charlottesville, USA. Prof. Dr. E. D. Hirsch. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-74661-1