"[T]his division of basic facts from higher-order thinking runs against common sense. How middle schoolers may apprehend “historical thinking” without learning about Napoleon, the Renaissance, slavery… in a word, without delving into the factual details of another time and place far from their own, is a mystery. Newpaper reporters realize better than professors the simple truth. If you don’t know which rights are enumerated in the First Amendment, you can’t do very much ‘critical thinking’ about rights in the United States. If you don’t know which countries border Israel, you can’t ascertain the grounds of the Middle East conflict. Such facts are not an end in themselves, to be sure, but they are an indispensable starting point for deeper insight, and the ignorance of them is a fair gauge of deeper deficiencies."

Mark Bauerlein. The Dumbest Generation.