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 a piece I published in Kappan in November, 2018. Here’s a link to the original. Public schools for private gain: The declining American commitment to serving the public good When schooling comes to be viewed mainly as a source of private benefit, both schools and society suffer grave consequences. Here's an overview: In … Continue reading Public Schools for Private Gain: The Declining American Commitment to Serving the Public Good
This post is a piece I wrote a few years ago, something I've been meaning to write for years. An alternative title is: "School -- Can't Live With It, Can't Live Without It." It's now a chapter in my 2024 book, The Ironies of Schooling. Here's a link to a pdf of the chapter. School … Continue reading School Gave Me the Creeps
This post is a recent blog entry by Larry Cuban. Here's a link to the original. He is making a strong case against the human capital rationale that has grounded the school reform movement in the last 50 years. The theory is that the primary social contribution of public education is its ability to stimulate … Continue reading Larry Cuban: School Reform Since “A Nation at Risk” Has Done Little to Promote Economic Growth
The introduction to a paper is critically important. This is where you try to draw in readers, tell them what you're going to address, and show why this issue is important. It's also a place to show a little style, demonstrating that you're going to take readers on a fun ride. Below are two exemplary … Continue reading Academic Writing Issues: Getting Off to a Fast Start
This post is a powerfully depressing essay by James Marriott, published in his Substack. Here's a link to the original. Here's an overview of his argument: More than three hundred years after the reading revolution ushered in a new era of human knowledge, books are dying. Numerous studies show that reading is in free-fall. Even … Continue reading James Marriott — The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society and the End of Civilisation
This post is the transcript of my discussion with Chris Saldaña of University of Wisconsin as part of the podcast, NEPC Talks Education. Here's a link to the audio version of this podcast. This is how NEPC describes the conversation in its press release for the podcast: In this month's episode of NEPC Talks Education, … Continue reading NEPC Podcast: Conversation with Chris Saldana about Education Policy
This post is a talk I gave earlier this week -- Boys Are Falling Behind: Overschooling Is the Reason. Here's a LINK to the slides. Below is a brief overview of the argument, but I recommend looking at the slides to get the full story. Males are increasingly falling behind in our educational system Compared to … Continue reading Boys Are Falling Behind — Overschooling Is the Reason
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 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
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 