The Common Good & Education
Republican political analyst and writer David Brooks’ spoke about Character and The Common Good last week in Boise, Idaho. His conflicting views on the importance of community versus our current education “reforms” were striking — to me.
Is doing what is right for the next generation considered a common good?
Brooks spoke about how love, relationships, and friendly interactions changes lives.
He believes the country is suffering from “a crisis of the social fabric.” He sees the hope for humanity in communities’ picking up communities thereby building a “denser moral fabric.”
He knows we are divided by education.
He feels our need for personal relationships.
He sees how both Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln supported “limited but energetic government to enhance social mobility.”
But my theory here is that David Brooks can’t see how education reform policies are destroying our social fabric. There’s a couple of reasons. One, A Nation At Risk (in his own words) marks his involvement with education reform. And two, if you view education reforms from a narrow political perch you can easily fall off. If you fall off, you can’t see far enough back to clearly view the road to educational quality and equality. You can’t see our history.
But, let’s consider the education reform road he, and the nation, traveled.
After the release of A Nation At Risk in 1983, there was a flurry of media sound bites unleashed on the public (more propaganda than substance). But what followed is what The Common Good & Education - The Crucial Voice of the PeopleThe Crucial Voice of the People:
