What If Napoleon Had Won at Waterloo

What If Napoleon Had Won at Waterloo Today I want to explore an interesting case of counterfactual history.  What would have happened if Napoleon Bonaparte had won in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo?  What consequences might have followed for Europe in the next two centuries?  That he might have succeeded is not mere fantasy.  …

David Brooks — How Democrats Can Win the Morality Wars

This post is a lovely analysis by David Brooks that appeared in a recent column.  Here's a link to the original.   He's talking about a major problem facing liberal democracies, which relates to the analysis by Francis Fukuyama in his new book, Liberalism and Its Discontents, which I discussed in my post on May 19. …

Do No Harm: Reflections on the Impact of Educational Research

This post is a short piece I wrote in 2011 for a special issue of the journal Teacher Education and Practice on “Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Scholarship.” My own take is that research in education is not necessarily well positioned to enhance education; on the contrary, it often does more harm than good.  See what …

Francis Fukuyama — Liberalism and Its Discontents

This post is a reflection on Francis Fukuyama's new book, Liberalism and Its Discontents.   The book provides the best and clearest discussion I've seen about the power and appeal of liberalism and the nature of the negative reactions it has been generating, especially in recent years.  Attacked from both left and right, threatened by populist …

The American High School Has Failed Its Missions

This article was originally published in 1989 in the MSU Alumni Magazine.  Here's a link to the original. It came out right after publication of my first book, The Making of an American High School, and introduces the scheme of three conflicting goals for US education -- democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility -- …

Max Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation” and the Role of Professor

This post is a reflection on Max Weber's "Politics as a Vocation," which he gave in 1919 at Munich University.  "Science as a Vocation" is the other famous speech he gave at Munich in 1917, which I posted here three years ago.   Compared to the science lecture, it's very long -- 23,000 words -- so …

Universities Give Away Knowledge and Sell Degrees

This post is a piece I just wrote.  I tried unsuccessfully to publish in five different venues and gave up, so I'm posting it here.   I focus on an issue that I've been thinking about for quite a while:  How to understand the core business model that governs American universities.   The answer is in the …

William Deresiewicz — On the Smug Dysfunction of the US Meritocracy

This post is a lovely essay by William Deresiewicz about what he calls "blue state culture."  It's published in the current issue of Salmagundi, and it's available without paywall at this link .  This issue of the magazine presents a series of responses to a powerful piece by David Brooks last fall in Atlantic, “How …

The Chronic Failure of Curriculum Reform

This post is about an issue I’ve wrestled with for years, namely why reforming schools in the U.S. is so difficult.  I eventually wrote a book on the subject, Someone Has to Fail: The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling, which was published in 2010.  But you may not need to read it if you look at this …