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.
This post is a lovely essay by Rose Horowitch, recently published in Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. The average GPA of the graduating class at Harvard is a resounding 3.8. Really? Grade inflation is as disease with multiple causes -- the popularity contest of teacher evaluations, the urge to keep the customer happy, … Continue reading Rose Horowitch — The Perverse Consequences of the Easy A
This is an essay about the historical construction of the American meritocracy, which is to say the new American aristocracy based on academic credentials. Here's a link to the original, which was published 2020 in Bildungsgeschichte: International Journal of the Historiography of Education. It is republished in my new book, The Emergent Genius of American … Continue reading Schooling the Meritocracy: How Schools Came to Democratize Merit, Formalize Achievement, and Naturalize Privilege
This post is an essay by Julien Berman that was published recently in the Washington Post. Here's a link to the original. How higher education failed America’s poor For decades, policymakers claimed to expand college access. In reality, they steered poor students into the least valuable degrees. Julien Berman The best investment you can make … Continue reading Julien Berman — How Higher Education Failed America’s Poor
This post is a classic piece by Karl Marx, “The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof.” It’s the last section of the first chapter in Capital, volume 1. This analysis had a big impact on me when I first read it in grad school, and it has shaped a lot of my own work. At … Continue reading Marx’s “The Fetishism of Commodities” and Its Implications for Education
This post is a very recent piece by Larry Cuban, which he posted on his blog two days ago. I just love it. He asks, What's the problem with being an average student? How did average school achievement become redefined as mediocre? This piece picks up on a theme I've been working on in … Continue reading Larry Cuban — Success, Failure, and “Mediocrity” in U.S Schools
This is an essay about the historical construction of the American meritocracy, which is to say the new American aristocracy based on academic credentials. This essay is included in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling. Here’s a link to the original, which was published 2020 in Bildungsgeschichte: International Journal of the Historiography of Education. An overview … Continue reading Schooling the Meritocracy
This post is an essay by David Brooks published recently in the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. It's about the fierce competition that students face in the academic rat race. First they fight to get into a highly selective college that only admits 5% of the people who apply. Then when they … Continue reading David Brooks — We Are the Most Rejected Generation
This post is an essay by Yascha Mounk from a recent issue of Persuasion. Here's a link to the original. The issue he raises is that there are worse things than having an inherited leadership class. The much-maligned WASP aristocrats, who long dominated leadership positions in the US, at least had the decency to take … Continue reading Yascha Mounk — The WASPs Are Gone
This post is an essay by Peter Wei published in his Substack Ecumene. Here's a link to the original. In this piece he explores an issue I've talked about here from time to time, one of the core problems that the current academic meritocracy poses for the meritocrats themselves. It's not just the losers in the … Continue reading Peter Wei — The Professional-Managerial Class Has No Future
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 