The American School: Why Johnny Can’t Think
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 1 hour, 29 minutes
Delivered at the Ford Hall Forum in 1984, “The American School: Why Johnny Can’t Think” examines why the American education system consistently underperforms and fails to properly educate children. Dr. Peikoff relates his experience in visiting some of the best schools in New York City, from preschool to teacher’s colleges. Through a series of vivid examples drawn from these experiences, Peikoff concludes that the American education system is fundamentally anti-conceptual in both its methodology and in the thin content it attempts to convey to students. He concludes by identifying the fundamental causes of this malaise and makes a bold recommendation to improve the situation.
Study Guide
This material is designed to help you digest the lecture content. You can also download a printable PDF version below.
| Summarize the anti-conceptual approach to education described by Dr. Peikoff. |
| What is the difference between interacting with the world on the perceptual versus conceptual level? |
| How does the method employed by the schools that Dr. Peikoff describes violate this distinction? |
| What principle of teaching and understanding history is missing in the approach detailed by Peikoff? Provide original examples of how this might happen today. |
| What is the unique value to the method of phonics in the teaching of reading? |
| Why do educators object to teaching grammar? |
| In teaching composition, what effect does the modern approach have on the student’s method of thinking more broadly? |
| Describe the effects of the anti-conceptual approach in the teaching of science. |
| Why does Dr. Peikoff recommend the lecture method of instruction? |
| What is the most basic cause of today’s educational problems identified by Dr. Peikoff? |
| What specific step to improve education is proposed? |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 0:55:10 | Would you comment on the paramount question that if you get more money you get better teachers? |
| 0:56:20 | How does your concept of returning to lectures in the schools fit in with Maria Montessori’s concept of creating an environment for learning? |
| 0:57:30 | Do any of your observations apply to mathematics classes? |
| 0:59:20 | Private enterprise in the United States does work, but public enterprise does not work. What hope is there for education since it is a public enterprise? |
| 1:02:30 | Should children be protected by government in ways that adults do not need and if so how? |
| 1:04:25 | Why are European and Japanese schools better than American? And if so, why are they better? |
| 1:07:18 | In the public school system, what do you think of compulsory education, compulsory attendance, and potentially compulsory prayer or meditation in the school system? |
| 1:11:25 | I agree with your view of the public school system. Was it really that different a few years ago? |
| 1:13:16 | In Boston, it is my experience that there is a lot of grammar and phonics taught. |
| 1:17:25 | About the teaching of thinking in schools, should it be taught, and at what level and in what way? |
| 1:20:30 | Can you tell us about the similarities of the educational system of America today and that of pre-Nazi Germany? |
| 1:22:33 | Can you comment on the historical penetration of Objectivism into the general run of American culture over the past period of time? |
| 1:26:00 | Can you comment on how watching television had an impact on the classroom both for students and teachers? Has anyone ever written a book called Why Johnny Can Hear but Won’t Listen? |