Facts are unimportant

There are a number of educationists today who appear to devalue the importance of learning facts. For example, CharityJames ¹ draws a distinction between what she calls ‘the true nature of knowledge’, which she describes as ‘activity’, and ‘information’ which she refers to as a ‘commodity’. Because there is an ‘overwhelming quantity of information’ available, it is argued that children should spend little time memorising facts. ‘Rather they should learn to scan and evaluate complex data.’