I know we're already six weeks into 2013, but think back to last year for a second:
What were the most talked about education stories of 2012?
I'm guessing your list looks something like this—Common Core. The Chicago Teacher Strike. Newtown. And what worries me is that no matter what other stories you recalled—from Michelle Rhee to the Dropout Crisis to Race to the Top—they're all likely to fit into one of the following categories: content, conflict, or catastrophe.
This is a huge problem, because the way we see "education" is colored by two things: our own personal memories of schooling—which are remarkably similar across the past 100 years—and our national conversations about schooling—which are remarkably negative, dispiriting, and two-dimensional.
Combine these two influences, and what you get is what we have: