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 recent column by David Brooks of the New York Times about the price we pay in service to senseless bureaucracy. Here's a link to the original. Bureaucracy is not necessarily a problem. It arose as a mechanism for providing a rational structure for governing large organizations in order to keep them … Continue reading The Burden of Needless Bureaucracy
This article was originally published in 1989 in the MSU Alumni Magazine. Here's a link to the original. It came out right after publication of my first book, The Making of an American High School, and introduces the scheme of three conflicting goals for US education -- democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility -- … Continue reading The American High School Has Failed Its Missions
This post is a piece I originally published in 1990 in Research in Sociology of Education and Socialization. Here's a link to that version. Later I included a slightly revised version as a chapter in my book, How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning. The text below comes for the latter version. Here's an … Continue reading The Rise of the Community College and the Limits of Educational Opportunity
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 