Biking and Debating Which Schools Are “Good”
I published this post over a decade ago. While I no longer can climb Mt. Hamilton in the Bay area, the arguments a small group of bikers had on their ride up the mountain continue to resonate among Americans.
“Why do people argue so much about education?”
I heard this question as I pumped up Mt. Hamilton. Biking up a California mountain forces you to think about many things or else you note how goofy you are for taking five hours to climb nineteen miles just to eat peanut butter sandwiches in the parking lot of the James Lick Observatory. So two friends and I chat about biking, the panoramas of the Santa Clara valley and, yes, even education.
About halfway up the mountain my friends and I began talking about the constant disagreement over schools. Victor mentioned the uproar over whether a high school should provide condoms to students. Deborah remembered a conversation with an aunt who was a “creationist.” They knew I was an educator and this led to Deborah’s question: “Why do people argue so much about CONTINUE READING: Biking and Debating Which Schools Are “Good” | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice