This post is a piece I published last year in Kappan. Here’s a link to the original. It’s a response to an essay by Jal Mehta proposing a new US grammar of schooling, and it refers to a piece I wrote for Kappan with my take on understanding the roots of this grammar. In my response I explore … Continue reading The Attractions of Doing School
This post is an op-ed by Harvard undergrad Aden Barton, which was published recently in the Harvard Crimson. Here's a link to the original. To see the graphs he refers to, click on the link. The essay explores the reasons for the recent surge in careerism among Harvard undergraduate as a way to understand the … Continue reading Aden Barton — How Harvard Careerism Killed the Classroom
This post is an essay by Simon Sarris that recently appeared in the magazine Palladium. Here's a link to the original. I can't say that I buy the argument Sarris is making here, but I sure find it illuminating. He's saying that we used to induct young people into productive activity at a much younger age, … Continue reading Simon Sarris: School Is Not Enough
This post is a new piece I just wrote as the preface to the Chinese translation of my book, The Trouble with Ed Schools. For me, this was a nice opportunity to accomplish two things in looking back on this work, which was published in 2004. One is to show how the book came about … Continue reading Reflections on “The Trouble with Ed Schools” for the Chinese Edition of the Book
This post is a recent essay by John McWhorter from the Times. In it he explores an issue dear to my heart -- that dynamic writing is about action. It's the verbs not the nouns that matter most. Academic writing is dense with nouns and also with verbs that are turned into nouns (e.g., optimization, … Continue reading John McWhorter — Forget Nouns. Verbs Are Where the Action Is
Schools are a great topic for cartoons, and here are some of my favorites. Enjoy.
This post is an essay by Adam Grant published in the Times in 2018. Here's a link to the original. His theme is one that has long resonated with me: Doing well in school is overrated. If you're getting all A's, you're denying yourself a rich educational experience and missing out on the kind of learning … Continue reading Adam Grant — What Straight-A Students Get Wrong
This is an op-ed I published in the New York Daily News in 2020. It’s on the things we miss about schools when they close – a reminder about the nonacademic functions of school that are closer to our hearts than its academic functions. What Kids Miss When They Go Without School David F. Labaree … Continue reading What Kids Miss When They Stay Out of School
Today I'm posting a wonderful essay by Daniel Markovits about the social consequences of the new meritocracy, which he published in Hedgehog Review. Here's a link to the original. As you may recall, last fall I posted a piece about his book, The Meritocracy Trap. In this essay, Markovits extends his analysis of the role … Continue reading Daniel Markovits: Schooling in the Age of Human Capital
This post is a reprint of a piece I published in Quartz in 2017. Here’s a link to the original. It’s an effort to explore the distinctively populist character of American higher education. The idea is that a key to understanding the strong public support that US colleges and universities have managed to generate is their ability to reach beyond … Continue reading Nobel Prizes Are Great, but Football Is Why US Universities Rule
