If the lines were followed from ideas to practical production one would experience the entrance of interrogative thought, scientific research, and a firm belief in democratic initiatives. Schools have reflected all of the permutations of philosophical thought requiring the learning of a “body of knowledge” in which right answers were offered to vocational education where learning to do was a high priority. Reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught traditionally but the caveat was that they would be applied in very different experiences.

Now the grounds for philosophical thought have changed radically. Because of the internet and the ease of commanding answers to every question, the body of knowledge has been found to be huge and from it flow subtopics of new information---some of which have never before been thought of or about. We are now confronted with knowing what to do or not do with what we can know.

Now educators have serious competition from the reservoir of historical and fresh information that has invaded the lives of children from the time they perambulate. All through this plethora of change the human organism has been dependent on a brain that is organized in complex ways that defy description, let alone understanding. The brain that was once so adequate for living in predictable ways is, in the present age, challenged to come to know the world in very different ways.

The transformation of the past several decades has been astounding as it must have been at the introduction of the Guttenberg press when learning through allegories and parables changed within a generation to “book learning”. Schools, churches, and families changed their definitions for being educated from what was likely to what could be proved. Ah! all new learnings, acquisitions, and styles---but with a sensory system and brain that was ill-prepared to make the transition. New standards for what it meant to be “smart” arose and different sorts of people became part of the Wisdom community who had never before been invited. Like it or not, democratic education was possible and it was here.

As a result of the last two decades of brain research, teachers have an opportunity to accelerate the rate at which children acquire information and also can improve levels of recall for most children. With careful organization and planning these things can be accomplished while protecting children’s right to have a childhood.  A new philosophy of education is brewing with roots back to the fundamentals of democracy. Many of the issues of privilege can be reexamined and with knowledge of the how we learn we will discover more about how we are kept from learning.

With new knowledge and insights come questions that must be considered. Can we put aside, at least to some extent, the traditions that have given us permission to rank, categorize, and label children given our inability to honor how it is they learn rather than on what we feel they cannot learn?