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. Here's an overview of my argument: In the 19th century, Europe created the … Continue reading Public Schooling as Social Welfare
This post is a lovely essay by William Galston about the importance of character in political life, which was published recently in American Prospect. Here's a link to the original. His case in point is George Washington, whose own character was the key to American independence and the formative influence on establishing the American presidency. … Continue reading William Galston — When Character Reigned
My post today is a classic document from American political history, Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address. He delivered it on March 4, 1865, only 41 days before his assassination. At only 702 words, it's one of the shortest political speeches of all time, but it's amazing to watch how Lincoln deploys these words. The last … Continue reading Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
Below is a piece I wrote for a book that was just published by Teachers College Press -- 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. Here's the book's table of contents, to give you an idea of its scope … Continue reading Public Schooling as Social Welfare
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty – a book you can't get out of your head – was written Albert Hirschman, a political economist and total mensch (read his obituary). I find his framework is immensely useful in thinking about schools. The core argument is that political and economic organizations are responsive to different kinds of customer … 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 by David Frum that was published in 2017 by Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. There has been a lot of talk lately about the threats to democracy, brought on by the disaster of the Trump administration and other shifts toward populist autocracy around the world. In this essay, … Continue reading David Frum: Democracies Fail in the Absence of Strong Conservative Parties
This post is a piece by Cameron Hilditch that appeared in the latest National Review. Here's a link to the original. I've been exploring the problems with the meritocracy in this blog a lot in last two years, but of late I haven't been running into pieces that provided a fresh take on the subject … Continue reading Cameron Hilditch — Why Meritocracy Makes Us Miserable
This post is a piece by New York Times columnist Jennifer Senior, which was published on December 21. Here's a link to the original. It builds on the argument that Michael Sandel made in The Tyranny of Merit and nicely illuminates some of the issues I've been raising in this blog about the problems of … Continue reading Jennifer Senior: 95 Percent of Representatives Have a Degree. Look Where That’s Got Us.
In episode 5 of The Crown's season 4, a desperate out-of-work painter named Michael Fagan breaks into Buckingham Palace, enters the queen's bedroom, sits on the foot of her bed, and asks her for a cigarette. "Filthy habit," she replies. "Yes, I know, I'm trying to quit," he says. Then he gets down to business, … Continue reading “The Crown” and the Long Tradition of Petitioning the Monarch for Redress of Grievances
This post is an essay by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, which explores the difference between the old and new American elite. A key difference is that the old elite had a tradition of public service that is lacking today. In part this may have been a case of noblesse oblige, the responsibility of the leading families … Continue reading What the Old Establishment Can Teach the New Tech Elite
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 