This post is a favorite piece by an old friend and terrific scholar, Harold Wechsler, who sadly died several years ago. Here's a link to the original, which appeared in Teachers College Record in 1981. In this paper, Wechsler explores a longstanding issue in American higher education. How do students and colleges respond when the … Continue reading Harold Wechsler — An Academic Gresham’s Law
This post is a lovely essay by Michael Lind, which was recently published in Tablet magazine. Here's a link to the original. In this piece, Lind provides a rich analysis of the history of the American elite. The key to this story is that the elite used to be plural -- a set of local … Continue reading Michael Lind — The New American Elite
This post is a piece by Agnes Callard, A More Perfect Meritocracy, which was published in Boston Review on December 21, 2020. Here's a link to the original. As you know, if you've been following this blog, I've long been wrestling with the idea of meritocracy. In particular, I've been focusing on its dysfunctions and … Continue reading Agnes Callard — A More Perfect Meritocracy
This post is an essay by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, which explores the difference between the old and new American elite. A key difference is that the old elite had a tradition of public service that is lacking today. In part this may have been a case of noblesse oblige, the responsibility of the leading families … Continue reading What the Old Establishment Can Teach the New Tech Elite
This post is a short essay by Jeffrey Guhin published on August 27, 2020 in Hedgehog Review. In it he puts forth an argument about the purpose of schooling that resonates with some of my own work, including recent posts here such as this, this, and this. Here's a link to the original. How COVID Can … Continue reading Guhin: How Covid Can Change What Schools Are For
This post is a piece I published today in the Chronicle Review. It's about an issue that has been gnawing at me for years. How can you justify the existence of institutions of the sort I taught at for the last two decades -- rich private research universities? These institutions obviously benefit their students and faculty, … Continue reading How NOT to Defend the Private Research University
This is an op-ed I published in the New York Daily News on Friday. It’s on the things we miss about schools when they close – a reminder about the nonacademic functions of school that are closer to our hearts than its academic functions. What Kids Miss When They Go Without School David F. Labaree … Continue reading What Kids Miss When They Go Without School
Today I'm posting a wonderful new essay by Daniel Markovits about the social consequences of the new meritocracy, which was just published in the latest issue of Hedgehog Review. Here's a link to the original. As you may recall, last fall I posted a piece about his book, The Meritocracy Trap. In this essay, Markovits … Continue reading Markovits: Schooling in the Age of Human Capital
This post is a piece I wrote for Kappan, published in the March 2020 edition. Here's a link to the PDF. Bureaucracies are often perceived as inflexible, impersonal, hierarchical, and too devoted to rules and red tape. But here I make a case for these characteristics being a positive in the world of public education. … Continue reading Two Cheers for School Bureaucracy
