THE GREAT SCAM. Opinion Section by David Cerdá

The Sham of Transversality

Years of “transversality” have resulted in the abandonment of fundamental practical knowledge

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David Cerdá

Years of “transversality” have resulted in the abandonment of fundamental practical knowledge for the personal development of character and judgement, the freedom and independence of the citizen, and high professional performance. It is time to abandon this high-level deceit and raise the level of secondary education, a crucial component of the educational system.

“Aspectre is haunting Europe,” as Engels and Marx began the Communist Manifesto; the same can be said today regarding education. However, this spectre is not communism, but “transversality.” I have lost count of the number of times I have heard in the last fifteen years that this or that fundamental learning is covered “transversally” by the education system. This is especially true for two essential subjects, Ethics and Critical Thinking, whose regretful absence in high school graduates I have been able to witness firsthand.

I will refer, in what follows, to the middle class, avoiding those who dropped out of the system and the gifted students. They have not been taught logic, dialectics, or rhetoric. For those who suspect that I am referring to the trivium or quadrivium, I emphasize that I am referring to something as simple as constructing a reasonable argument (premises and conclusions; ideas and facts), knowing how to debate it in a logical way, opening ourselves up to criticism seeking collaboratively the truth and presenting to an audience a standpoint with a minimum of structure, soundness, and style. Or at the very least, knowing what truth is, and why it must be pursued. Next on the agenda, Ethics. They know nothing about this subject. They come deconstructed and blank, pure relativists, with no intention of “getting into trouble,” that is, disheartened from fighting for justice after determining what it entails, in conscience.

If this happens, even though these practical knowledge essentials have been taught “transversally,” it is because students have seen the contents of Philosophy and reading requirements significantly reduced. Condemned to varying degrees of functional illiteracy, they generally lack the ability to understand moderately complex texts. They also have no knowledge of the basics of human cognition and its biases, and they aren’t taught how to tell right from wrong and that they can use their best judgement to reason about them, nor are they shown the path humanity has followed to discover them. They can barely explain how their brains work. Nothing less than their brains: the only instrument they have to build an honest and assertive life in the polis and outperform artificial intelligence in the job market.

The LOMLOE is yet another nail in the coffin of this scam. The law mentions transversality six times, stating that it will cover its noble intentions “both through specific contents and from a transversal perspective,” mentioning, concerning the curriculum, that it will incorporate “content of a transversal nature in all areas, subjects, and domains,” and so on. This is how the political emptying of education works, like a spoon that scoops the flesh out of an avocado after splitting it in two and removing the pit: removing the essence of contents in exchange for stating beautiful intentions in the laws and then underfunding those who will implement them. It is about denying curriculum space to what is not convenient for the caste (the ruling class). There are many people with the capacity to think for themselves and a strong and courageous conscience, people capable and genuinely interested in their community and their fellow human beings; lest these people rise up and corner the powerful.

“Furthermore,” says Article 19 of the LOMLOE, “special attention will be paid to emotional and values education and to enhancing meaningful learning for the development of transversal competences that promote autonomy and reflection.” It is no coincidence that two fake models -emotional and values education- help to define what transversal education is: pretend to teach while doing nothing. This is how politicians of all stripes have transformed education: into one more playground for their ideological wars, making all their laws declarations of intentions to, in turn, contradict each other, to the detriment of all.

The idea is, at lunchtime, to pass a slice of ham over everyone’s face, so that those who can afford it pay for it. Because as the world develops, and rightfully so, private education is aware of what is missing, these contents are offered later. And this is how, regardless of the social conscience they declare, all governments in the last thirty years have contributed to widening social inequality, which has now reached rampant levels. It would be a great step for the educational community – teachers, school administrators, and parents – to refuse to receive a single spoonful of transversality, to say enough to political-educational charlatanism once and for all, and to affirm that what is not taught in real subjects does not happen.

Source: educational EVIDENCE

Rights: Creative Commons