This post is about an issue I wrestled with for years, namely why reforming schools in the U.S. is so difficult. I eventually wrote a book on the subject, Someone Has to Fail: The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling, which was published in 2010. But you may not need to read it if you look at … Continue reading The Chronic Failure of Curriculum Reform
This post is an essay by Marie Newhouse recently published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here's a link to the original. She is an associate professor of law, philosophy, and public policy at the University of Surrey and a visiting fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. She provides a … Continue reading Marie Newhouse — The Campus Civility Collapse
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty – a book you can't get out of your head – was written by Albert Hirschman, a political economist and total mensch (read his obituary). I find that his framework is immensely useful in thinking about schools. The core argument is that political and economic organizations are responsive to different kinds … Continue reading The Problem of Public Schools in a Liberal Democracy: Insights from Albert Hirschman’s “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty”
This post is about, of all things, the Byzantine Empire. Unlike its western counterpart, what is usually called the Roman Empire, it has received little respect over the years. Even the name is a calumny (drawn from the name of the original Greek city of Byzantium that later became the empire's capital, Constantinople), which was … Continue reading The Triumph and Tragedy of the Byzantine Empire — How It Preserved the West and Devastated the East
This post is a chapter from my 2004 book, The Trouble with Ed Schools. Here's a link to an earlier version that was published in 2003 in Educational Researcher. I wrote this in response to my experience teaching doctoral students in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. Nearly all of the students … Continue reading Peculiar Problems of Preparing Educational Researchers
This post is an essay by historian Steven Mintz, recently published in his Substack. Here's a link to the original. I strongly recommend that you check out his posts, which are both prolific and memorable. Here he weaves together two arguments around Shakespeare's historical plays. One is about the power of his language. The other … Continue reading Steven Mintz — When Words Still Mattered: Shakespeare, Language, and the Birth of Historical Consciousness
This post is a piece I published in Kappan in November, 2018. Here’s a link to the original. Public schools for private gain: The declining American commitment to serving the public good When schooling comes to be viewed mainly as a source of private benefit, both schools and society suffer grave consequences. Here's an overview: In … Continue reading Public Schools for Private Gain: The Declining American Commitment to Serving the Public Good
This post is a piece by my favorite education writer, Jay Mathews at the Washington Post. Here's a link to the original. It's his discussion of a new book by Tom Loveless at the Brookings Institution, Between the State and the Schoolhouse: Understanding the Failure of Common Core. The book is an examination of why … Continue reading Jay Mathews — Why Plans to Raise Educational Standards Will Never Work
This post is about two key elements in good writing, one of which is to focus on actors and actions. Who's doing what to whom? In academic writing, the actors are often not people but social entities -- bureaucracy, racism, curriculum, schools, universities -- but the principle is the same. Some force or factor or … Continue reading On Writing: It’s All About Actors and Actions and Cutting the Flab
This post is an essay by Beverly Gage published recently in the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. In it, she draws on Richard Hofstadter's 1963 book, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, to show how this is not the first time that American universities found themselves the target of political attacks. Let's not forget the … Continue reading Beverly Gage: The American University Is in Crisis. Not for the First Time.
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 