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 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 recent essay by Hilarius Bookbinder from his Substack. Here's a link to the original. He is my favorite read these days in my favorite new medium, Substack. He's got a great nom de plume, don't you think? Based on a few clues in his posts, I finally figured out his real name. … Continue reading Hilarius Bookbinder — There Is No Government Waste
I'm posting today one of the greatest speeches ever given, from that master of rhetoric, Frederick Douglass. It demonstrates the power of language to make arguments and change hearts. In a time like ours, when rhetoric is used to promote the worst social ills, it's gratifying to see what it can do in the right … Continue reading Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July”
This post is a recent op-ed by Ezra Klein from the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. It draws on his terrific new book, Abundance, coauthored with Derek Thompson. It's about a core problem facing the country and the Democratic Party, which is that we have made it near impossible to build major … Continue reading Ezra Klein — You Try to Build Anything, and You’re Stepping into Quicksand
This post is a piece by Boaz Barak that was recently published as a guest essay in the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. In it he explores what I consider to be an important issue about how higher education has in some ways contributed to the declining faith that the public has … Continue reading Boaz Barak: How About We Don’t Bring Our Whole Selves to the Classroom
This is my first ever Pollyanna post. I wrote it last year in order to cheer myself about the world we live in. I think it still stands up. We Live in the Best of Times We seem to be in a world … Continue reading We Live in the Best of Times — Really
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 Frank Fukuyama that was published recently in Persuasion. Here's a link to the original. And here's a link to a PDF of the original. Here he explores an argument I strongly support, namely that liberals have forgotten that we used to deploy the powers of government to build things. More … Continue reading Francis Fukuyama — Our Hamiltonian Moment
This post is a speech that Stanford's former provost, John Etchemendy, recently gave to the university's board of trustees. Right now, the threats to universities are coming fast and furious from the outside, with the new administration canceling research grants, threatening to cut indirect cost reimbursement, and to tax endowment income. But in this speech … Continue reading John Etchemendy — The Threat from Within
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 