This post is an essay by Perry Bacon that was published recently in the Washington Post. Here's a link to the original. The title tells the story. Crisis is an overused word in the politics of American education, and his analysis shows that it doesn't fit the data. See what you think. We don’t have an … Continue reading Perry Bacon — We Don’t Have an Education Crisis in America
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 a recent essay by Peter Gray published in his Substack. Here's a link to the original. It's the best critique I've seen about the damage done by the Common Core. Here's how he summarizes his argument: Why has Common Core failed even to increase scores in the subject areas of its primary focus? … Continue reading Peter Gray — The Total Failure of the Common Core
Below is a piece I wrote for a book that was published by Teachers College Press in 2022 -- Public Education: Defending a Cornerstone of American Democracy, edited by David Berliner and Carl Hermanns. Here’s a link to a pdf of my piece. I republished the essay in my 2024 book, The Ironies of Schooling. Here's … Continue reading Public Schooling as Social Welfare
This post is the text of a lecture I gave in 2009 at the University of Berne. It was originally published in the Swiss journal Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Historiographie and then found its way into my 2010 book, Someone Has to Fail. Here is the link to the first published version. It’s about a longstanding problem in American … Continue reading What Schools Can’t Do
This post is a recent piece by Larry Cuban that appeared on his blog. Here's a link to the original. The title tells the story. But they way he tells the story is delightful. Policymakers and Teachers Live in Different Worlds Larry Cuban Here’s a story about the different worlds that U.S policymakers and teachers live in … Continue reading Larry Cuban — Policymakers and Teachers Live in Different Worlds
This post draws on a discussion I participated in that was published in Comparative Education Review in 2009. It brought together a variety of scholars to comment on a new film about schooling produced by Bob Compton called 2 Million Minutes. The film draws its title from the number of minutes that students around the … Continue reading Schools Should Focus on Producing More Hustlers than Scholars
This post is an op-ed written by Deborah Malizia and me that was published on December, 2022 in the Mercury News. Here's a link to the original. It's about how the pressure for rigor and high academic achievement in American schools has been damaging the mental health of students. Another example of schooling's role in … Continue reading Schools Are at the Root of the Youth Mental Health Crisis
This post is a lovely essay by Clare Coffey that was recently published in The Bulwark. Here's a link to the original. It's an ode to the most wonderful of civic institutions in American life: the snow day. Can you remember what if felt like when you woke up one morning, dreading the thought of … Continue reading An Ode to Snow Days
This post is a classic essay by Philip Jackson from his 1974 book, Life in Classrooms. Here's a link to the original. To me, it's the best piece that has ever been written about "the daily grind" that students experience in elementary classrooms, which I often used in my classes. It's all about the hidden … Continue reading Philip Jackson — The Daily Grind
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 