Learning Essentials

Core Knowledge prizes content across the disciplines, bucking a trend toward a narrower, skills-based approach to learning.

Gainesville, Ga.

The word “Mesopotamia” runs like a roller coaster over the tongues of 1st graders in Jamie Hemphill’s class as they practice it over and over, interspersed with giggles. Pupils here at New Holland Core Knowledge Academy are similarly amused when asked to name the mighty rivers that fed the ancient kingdom’s rich valley and inspired commerce and innovation. “Tigris and Euphrates, Euphrates … Euphrates,” they call out enthusiastically.

But the lesson on early civilizations goes beyond the recitation of strange, lyrical vocabulary words. These 1st graders can explain how the Mesopotamians were among the first people to develop a code of laws and a writing system. They can find the rivers on a map of the region, in what is now Iraq. Ms. Hemphill has also covered a hefty dose of American history, a foundation for later grades when students will compare the development of a legal system in the Middle East thousands of years ago with the establishment of a democratic government in the United States.

Like teachers in many urban school districts with large numbers of disadvantaged children, the faculty here strives to build the foundational skills necessary for later academic success. At New Holland,...