This post is an essay I recently published in Kappan. Here's a link to the original. I also presented these ideas in a talk. Here's a link to the PowerPoint slides of that talk. The story is in the title. See what you think. Americans are overschooled By David F. Labaree | Mar 9, 2026 | Backtalk No … Continue reading Americans Are Overschooled
The post is an essay by Eli Stark-Elster from his Substack. Here's a link to the original. His argument is that -- although there's a lot of talk now about the damage that social media are doing to children and major efforts to ban social media use for anyone under 16 -- there's a bigger … Continue reading Eli Stark-Elster — School Is Way Worse for Kids than Social Media
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 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 a piece I published in 2012 in Bildungsgeschichte: International Journal for the Historiography of Education. It draws on my experience over the years working with doctoral students in education. The advice, basically, is to approach your apprenticeship in educational research doing the opposite of what everyone else tells you to do. Hope you like it. SERMON ON EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH … Continue reading Sermon on Educational Research
This post is an essay by Clay Shirky that was recently in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Here's a link to the original. Here's the case that helped him crystalize his thoughts about the impact of AI on student learning: Earlier this semester, an NYU professor told me how he had AI-proofed his assignments, only to … Continue reading Clay Shirky — Is AI Enhancing Education or Replacing It?
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 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 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
This post is an op-ed by Jon Zimmerman that was recently published in the Wall Street Journal. Here's a link to the original. A Trump Voter Walks Into My Office It’s no joke—universities impoverish themselves by suppressing conservatives. By Jonathan Zimmerman Despite what you might have read about left-wing monoculture in academia, we really do … Continue reading Jon Zimmerman — A Trump Voter Walks Into My Office
