INTRODUCTION
355
conference a success, as well as the Advisory Board of
Partisan R eview
and
the Austrian Cultural Institute. I will introduce the participants in a little
while. To begin with, I should say that I'll be provocative, in order to have
us get into the controversies.
As you know, in
New Schools for a New Century
Diane Ravitch and
Joseph Vitteriti have excellent chapters on the charter school movement
and school choice, on a variety of school reforms and school-based versus
centrally based management, on Catholic lessons for private schools, and so
on. They introduce their volume by stating that "for the first time in a cen–
tury, reformers are beginning to think 'outside the box' ." At this
conference, I expect us to step even further outside. This is why I have
brought together educators from other Western countries, to inform us
how they are dealing with problems similar to our own; and why I have
invited experts on what is going on in K-12 education. For what students
learn before entering college-in curricula and study habits-predeter–
mines much of their subsequent education and, by implication, what and
how they will do after graduation.
Altogether, I would like us to stay away from rehashing the relatively
narrow-though necessary-polemics about the advantages and disadvan–
tages of testing, of vouchers, of affirmative action, of diversity, etc., but
nevertheless keep these in mind while searching for better means of expos–
ing American students to, and interesting them in, advanced knowledge
and the basics of emerging information. We know, even
if
they don't, that
that is what they will need to get ahead. To that end, we will have to bol–
ster the teaching of mathematics, and must institute minimum standards in
every field of study. And we will have to stop advancing kids who can't
read at grade level-levels geared to challenging kids rather than boring
them-and teach them to use computers rather than have these take the
place of thinking.
Basically, I am firmly convinced that the prevailing nostrums, such as the
search for self-esteem, for group and personal identity, which tend also to
foster insincerity and dishonesty by stressing a relatedness that is often
unfelt, are no more than feel-good ideologies. Or boondoggles. Competence
rather than hypocritical flattery, I believe, is what bolsters self-esteem.
As you well know, all the by now taken-for-granted and unexamined
notions and passing fads may be labeled, and often dismissed, as "political–
ly correct"-without considering their far-reaching consequences. This
happens to be the current slogan while "business" is conducted more or
less as before. We will have to be on the look-out for strategems not yet
invented, be it by poli ticians, educators, administrators, teachers' organiza–
tions, or money managers and efficiency experts. Yes, we all believe in
democracy, and in equality-preferably of opportunities rather than
