Education Nation IV
What to make of “Education Nation,” which took over the magnificent New York Public Library for two days earlier this week and focused a great deal of national attention on a topic most of us care about? In all, Education Nation consisted of 29 separate segments[1], generally organized around the theme “What It Takes.” I made it to 15 in person[2] and watched three more online.
If you are doing the math, you’ve figured out that cramming all those sessions into two days means they had to be short because this was an event made for television and the web. And from what I saw online, it worked very well.
Education Nation has come a long way since the first one in 2010, which old NBC hands remember as “Evacuation Nation,” because a torrential downpour and windstorm forced everyone to flee Rockefeller Center for the halls of NBC’s headquarters.
These two days had some highlights and surprises. I thought at least two stars emerged: Delaware Governor Jack Markell, who spoke forcefully about the importance of early education, and Joshua Starr, the Superintendent of Schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, who argued persuasively for multiple