The Right is selling a vision of classical education that promises to build character and nurture wonder. Liberals are stuck aiming for higher test scores and employability. Public education defenders need our own inspiring take on the meaning of school.
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What might a lofty and inclusive vision for K-12 look like? It would make sense to start by asking what matters to students, who are feeling less and less motivated to come to school at all. Those who have spent time with today’s young people know that they are much more than the illiterate cell-phone addicts we see caricatured in media portrayals. They deserve to reach for something more rousing than standardized definitions of “proficiency,” which have been forced on them with little regard for their agency or interiority. They deserve to read a gripping novel in its entirety, not because it will help them get into college but because their time on earth is precious and good stories can spark joy.
They deserve to come together for rich dialogue and deep deliberation simply because they are human beings, with beating hearts, and searching minds, and yes, souls that long for meaning.