This post is a recent essay by Peter Gray published on his Substack, Play Makes Us Human. Here's a link to the original. He is a research professor of psychology at Boston College, who has written a number of books about the importance of free play for children. Like me, Gray is concerned that we over … Continue reading Peter Gray: The Toxic Consequences of Attending a High-Achieving School
This post is a piece that is included in my newish book, Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life. In it I focus on an issue that I’ve been thinking about for quite a while: How to understand the core business model that governs American universities. The answer is in … Continue reading Universities Give Away Knowledge and Sell Degrees
I'm a big fan of Elmore Leonard. I wrote an earlier post about the deft way he leads you into a story and introduces a character on the very first page of a book. He never gives his readers fits the way we academic writers do ours, by making them plow through half a paper before … Continue reading Elmore Leonard on the Art of Setting the Scene
This piece is an essay about my life in scholarship and some of the lessons I learned from it. It was written in mid career, after publishing The Trouble with Ed Schools. It now appears as a chapter in my newish book, Being a Scholar, published in 2023. The core insight is that research trajectories are … Continue reading Adventures in Scholarship
This post is an essay by David Brooks that was published in the Times on Jun 6. Here's a link to the original. He's addressing an issue that I've been exploring in my blog over the last few years, the way in which US higher education flipped the class dynamic. Top universities used to be … Continue reading David Brooks: The Sins of the Educated Class
This week's post is a piece I presented at a conference in Switzerland and then published in an obscure book in 2010. Here's the original version. And now it's a chapter in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling. It's a story about the contest for dominance in US education in the early 20th century … Continue reading How Dewey Lost
This post is an essay by Eliot Cohen, which was published recently in the Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. He's making the argument that universities have no business taking stands on major issues of public policy and international affairs that are outside the scope of their institutional domain. It's in line the Chicago position … Continue reading Eliot Cohen — The Great Academic Squirm
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 