Real Educational Reform

For three decades, there has run on a hot argument about the theory and the practice of schooling in this country. Yet what measurements we possess indicate that, from kindergarten to graduate school, standards of learning have been declining ever since 1949. Weary work though the restoration of learning must be, there still rise up brave souls who tell us what has been done wrongly, and how we may educate rightly.

Two very recent books in this crowded field I find particularly interesting. One already has been widely discussed, Mr. Paul Copperman’s volume The Literacy Hoax: The Decline of Reading, Writing, and Learning in the Public Schools and What We Can Do about It (William Morrow, $10.95). I do most highly recommend this book (which was reviewed more thoroughly by James Jackson Kilpatrick in NR’s December 21 issue), as does the Council for Basic Education.

RK

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Russell Kirk

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For three decades, there has run on a hot argument about the theory and the practice of schooling in this country. Yet what measurements we possess indicate that, from kindergarten to graduate school, standards of learning have been declining ever since 1949. Weary work though the restoration of learning must be, there still rise up brave souls who tell us what has been done wrongly, and how we may educate rightly.

Two very recent books in this crowded field I find particularly interesting. One already has been widely discussed, Mr. Paul Copperman’s volume The Literacy Hoax: The Decline of Reading, Writing, and Learning in the Public Schools and What We Can Do about It (William Morrow, $10.95). I do most highly recommend this book (which was reviewed more thoroughly by James Jackson Kilpatrick in NR’s December 21 issue), as does the Council for Basic Education.