education history

New York's Education Wars a Century Ago Show how Content Restrictions Can Backfire

by Bill Greer

Laws enforcing ideological positions in education can gain popularity when they focus on unpopular ideas. But when they take effect to punish popular teachers, the public gets second thoughts. 

The War on Black Studies Isn't "Culture War" – It's Part of a Long Political Battle

by Robin D.G. Kelley

"Who’s afraid of Black Studies? White supremacists, fascists, the ruling class, and even some liberals. As well they should be. Black Studies was born out of a struggle for freedom and a genuine quest to understand the world in order to change it."

Moms For Liberty Event at Museum of American Revolution is a Betrayal of Historians and Democracy

by Jen Manion

"The Museum of the American Revolution has a responsibility to defend the history and practice of American democracy, not harbor those who seek to destroy it."

Indoctrination in Schools? How About a Century of Capitalist Propaganda?

by Jennifer Berkshire

A century ago, the electric power industry faced an existential crisis as government mulled over public rural electrification programs. Their solution was to provide teachers and schools with propaganda for the magic of private enterprise, the first wave of business's efforts to control curriculum.

The Other Mothers Fighting the School Wars

Although Moms For Liberty was the early entrant into the current battles over curriculum, race and LGBTQ policies in schools, other groups have mobilized their identities as mothers to fight the right's efforts. Historians Adam Laats and Stacie Taranto note that school politics have often hinged on who could leverage motherhood as a political force. 

There's Never Been a Right Way to Read

by Adrian Johns

The intellectual work and play of reading has always competed with other demands on attention; only recently have science and commerce converged to sell remedies for distraction and proprietary methods for reading. 

How the Reagan Administration Used "A Nation at Risk" to Push for School Privatization

by Valerie Strauss and James Harvey

One of the educators who served on the commission that developed an influential report on the state of American education argues that the report was built to serve an anti-public school ideology, and that its conclusions were a foundation for the culture war battles over schooling today. 

Attacks on Education Echo Fascism

by Eden McLean

"Florida’s legislation represents only the latest in a long history of attempts to deplore knowledge, deride academic inquiry for its own sake, and discourage intellectual curiosity in our children and the American public."

SCOTUS Arguments in Debt Relief Cases Show the Fracturing of the Bipartisan "Education Myth"

by Jon Shelton

Two Justice's preoccupation with the fairness of relieving student debt proclaimed a concern that the government not pick economic winners and losers. But the student debt crisis reflects a decades-long bipartisan sales pitch, backed by policy, that college is the individual's path to prosperity. That pitch is now wearing thin. 

Students are the Victims of DeSantis's Education War in Florida

Ron DeSantis's education policies are driven by what will rile up the most reactionary voters in the state and have little do do with rectifying the growing problems with student achievement and teacher retention that are actually putting the state's schools in crisis, argue two Floridian writers. 

Those "Local" School Battles in Texas are Part of a Decades-Long Statewide Plan to Undermine Public Schools

Advocates of privatizing public schools have bankrolled and organized parents' groups around a range of values issues with the goal of undermining confidence in local schools. In Texas, it seems to be working to break down the longstanding opposition of rural families to voucher programs. 

The Book that Launched Black Studies Was a Challenge to Classroom Racism

by Ibram X. Kendi

Education historian Jarvis Givens discusses a 90th anniversary edition of Carter Woodson's pathbreaking "The Mis-Education of the Negro," noting that the book was banned in Oklahoma for being "antiklan" in its efforts to overturn the pervasive message of Black inferiority in the established school curriculum. 

Democrats' Embrace of Education "Reform" Paved Way for DeSantis

by Nora De La Cour

Decades of stressing metrics, measurement and job-readiness has created a vacuum where a robust public discussion of the role of public schools in nurturing shared humanity should be. Conservatives are now eagerly filling this vacuum with privatization and "classical education" curricula. 

Did DeSantis Claim More Credit than he Deserves for the College Board's Retreat?

by Adam Laats

The College Board faced immense public criticism for its revised standards for the AP US History exam in 2014, and caved to the demands of conservative Southerners. If Florida's governor deserves credit (or blame) it's for predicting they'd cave again. 

The Activist Roots of Student-Centered Teaching (Review)

by Danica Savonick

A new book by Cathy Davidson and Christina Katopodis examines the history of teaching efforts to involve students not simply in discussions but in "co-creating a syllabus." 

Have Children Changed in Modern America?

by Steven Mintz

A recent argument for the general stability of children over the last century and a half misses the key point that "childhood" has been a fluid concept, and changes in how childhood is understood has necessarily affected the experiences of children. 

"They Want Your Children!": Right-Wing School Panics Seek to Repeal Modernity

by Rick Perlstein

"Reactionary panics about what children learn in school are about as old as time. And they won’t ever go away."

The Story of the School that Defied Nazi Ideological Control

by Deborah Cadbury

Amid the intense politicization of education today, what can we learn from one remarkable story of a teacher's defiance of official ideological control? 

The Classic Model of Education and Democracy Can't Address Today's School Politics

by Steven Mintz

The idea of education serving democracy by producing informed citizens is tested by the lack of agreement about what that goal means. Can the competing claims on the education system be reconciled? 

The CRT and "Don't Say Gay" Panics Aren't About Controlling Public Schools, but Destroying Them

by Adam Laats

In the 1920s, the KKK sought to strengthen and control the public schools as vehicles to teach their version of "100% Americanism"; today's culture warriors hope to undermine trust in schools as a way to defund and privatize them.