Books, Arts & Manners: Public Mess, Private Function

Challenge to American Schools: The Case for Standards and Values, edited by John H. Bunzel (Oxford, 248 pp., $19.95)

There are three startling facts about the recent excellence-in-education movement. First, there is virtually unanimous distress over the soft curricula. permissive behavior standards, and trendy teaching philosophies that prevail in our public schools. Second, there are a number of promising reform proposals that have support among the general population as well as among powerful business, media, and political figures. And third, despite all this, the reform movement has fizzled out; aside from a few statewide reforms in the South and some minor reforms elsewhere, any attempts to significantly improve public schools have been beaten back.

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David Brooks

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Challenge to American Schools: The Case for Standards and Values, edited by John H. Bunzel (Oxford, 248 pp., $19.95)

There are three startling facts about the recent excellence-in-education movement. First, there is virtually unanimous distress over the soft curricula. permissive behavior standards, and trendy teaching philosophies that prevail in our public schools. Second, there are a number of promising reform proposals that have support among the general population as well as among powerful business, media, and political figures. And third, despite all this, the reform movement has fizzled out; aside from a few statewide reforms in the South and some minor reforms elsewhere, any attempts to significantly improve public schools have been beaten back.