Crisis Hunting

If you type "united states," "education crisis," and any year from the 1840s--the beginning of compulsory education--to the present, and spend some time sifting through results, you'll quickly discover that education--mostly public primary and secondary education--has been in crisis since its inception. Which raise the question, when will we recognize that to perceive (public) education as perpetually in crisis serves interests--cultural, political, and economic interests--that are not necesarily the interests of children?

Irish Catholic immigrants landing in Boston? Education crisis! Just ask Horace Mann. Soviet satellites orbiting? Education crisis! Just ask Dwight D. Eisenhower. Crises in between, crises since. "Why Johnny Can't Read." "A Nation at Risk." "The Digital Divide."

If you have an ax to grind or a textbook or computer or software to sell or a vote to get, point to the schools and criticize what's going on.

Meanwhile, education hasn't changed that much since Plato sat in the woods with Socrates, since Charlemagne founded Cathedral schools... In "Tinkering Toward Utopia," Larry Cuban and David Tyack show how, despite a century of efforts at school reform, what happens in classrooms remains relatively unchanged.

That's because some ideas that are in the box belong in the box.