"We Are All Reformers" (Part 2)
An education timeline of laws, events, and key people would show that in the 20th and 21st centuries multiple school reforms occurred again and again touching students, practitioners, parents, and researchers. The problem with such chronologies, however, is that they overwhelm viewers with lists of factual details. It is hard to sort out the important from the trivial. So I present no such chronology. For those readers, however, who want to see a few examples, look here and here.
Instead, as a historian of school reform (with a point of view), I will consolidate all of the events, innovations, people, and legislation into three major reform movements since 1900–in each case originating outside of the public schools—that sought to improve the nation and its tax-supported public schools. These three movements were the basis of a course that David Tyack and I taught for over a decade (1987-1999) resulting in our book, Tinkering toward Utopia.
Sure, in merging together decades of reform, I run the risk of dropping innovations and people that other historians and contemporary reformers may find regrettable, even mistaken. So be it. In writing about the past, historians CONTINUE READING: "We Are All Reformers" (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
