Dr. Sternberg goes even further, saying that science and history instruction have also been squeezed.
In America, calls for this type of instruction have come in waves, usually in reaction to real or imagined foreign threats.
In recent years, Ms. Caparulo said, cooking and cooking instruction have become more popular with young people trying to economize in a shaky economy.
Chancellor Klein and Diana Lam, the deputy chancellor for instruction, have decreed a crash program of professional development to prepare teachers for the new curriculum, which is far more challenging than what many of them are used to.
The district now plans its own assessments, including student presentations, written accounts of experiments and multiple-choice tests, that can show whether claims made for kit-based instruction have merit.
I have had no instruction, have no talent and certainly no justification for covering nice white canvas with the kind of daubs that seem constantly to spring from my brushes".
