Because American schools don’t focus on knowledge, we aren’t giving our students the tools they need to comprehend much of what they read. Many are just like that liberal arts student trying to make sense of an engineering text....
Is this just a pedagogical distinction? I buy that pedagogy is problematic. However, my sense is it cuts to a deeper challenge of certain factions of the population dually:
1/ Seeking credentials, and following a prescribed path to secure them without asking, "Is this the best method?" or "Is this information relevant or of high quality?" There's a lack of epistemic curiosity.
2/ Forwarding theories that are unsubstantiated by evidence, or based on pseudo-evidence tethered to a flimsy empirical foundation, and disseminating them to an intellectually undiscriminating public. This fuels a growing culture of anti-intellectualism, and polarization around matters that have objective answers (or answers within an acceptable level of statistical confidence). Not actually teaching substantive material might be a weaselly way of avoiding a political hot potato.
I don't think the US is alone in this challenge. A healthy garden can't grow on a rocky, polluted hillside.
