INTRODUCTION
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ventures with public funds? Or, should we go along with President Clinton
when, from the bottom of his heart, he proposes an education agenda in
his State of the Union address, and declares that we are entering the year,
or the decade, dedicated to our children?
Of course, children, like motherhood and disease control, can make for
electoral victories. Improving standards, stepping on the toes of incompe–
tent educators, eliminating wasteful programs--such as bilingual education,
which harms more children than it helps-do not. Attacks on entrenched
interests are risky at best for a politician's career, and, with the help of the
press, usually lead to his defeat.
The days of good public education-from Head Start to college--as
the means to upward mobility seem to be gone. In the past, private schools
existed to set an example, to offer specialized or religious education, served
an elite whose kids had trouble keeping up, or whom they didn't want to
expose to the mores and problems of the lower classes. (Not that they would
say so out loud.) But, most of all, public schools managed to integrate large
numbers of inunigrants from diverse backgrounds, to melt most of them
into the American pot- rather than foster animosity among ethnic groups,
and victimhood, under the banner of a so-called multiculturalism that ends
up in ghettoization. I am not advocating excessive patriotism. But isn't
there a need, also, for a recognition of a national interest that can best be
furthered by public schools that hold up high standards?
I have outlined only some of the larger questions, all of them related
to the overwhelming problems we expect educators to resolve. There are
others. I have not spoken about the centrality of the classroom where, ulti–
mately, what goes on depends not on the system, but on the contact
between teacher and student. And on the personal ethics and honesty of
each educator. Unfortunately, in a dishonest system, even the best of them
will have trouble hanging on to the values they espoused when they chose
their profession.
Of course, I don't believe that we will solve these problems over the
next two days. But I would like us to examine the connections among
them and, in the process, rethink the ramifications of continuing the status
quo. Now, I want to welcome you all, and I want to remind you that we
will leave time for audience discussions.
Now I will put on my other hat, and introduce the speakers for this
first session. We will begin with Igor Webb, who is a former acting presi–
dent at Adelphi University and the author of
Against Capitulation
and
From
Custom to Capital: The English Novel and the Industrial R evolution.
He's been
working for a long time with superintendents of schools, in order to coor–
dinate raising standards in both high schools and universities. The next
speaker is Kurt Scholz. He's the superintendent of schools of the city of
