But the most profound flaw was noted at the beginning--that you should try to pull children into education by dumbing-down education. This is a glib superficial solution and finally a destructive one. If you dumb-down education, you will end up with millions of dumbed-down students. That is the outcome we are now living with.
The proper solution is to organize education so that it FEELS effortless to the students. The school aims high but is crafty and patient in reaching its goals. In short, good education appears to be easy education (not the painful chaotic mess we too often see).
Let’s look at the two approaches side-by-side. Suppose the subject is geography. The progressive classroom announces, “Learning the names of the states is a waste of time.” The kids sigh with relief. They are kept busy learning nothing. Forty years later they are still paying for this dumbing-down.