Abstract

Second-Class Schools in a First-Class Power

Schools are an invention of the Bronze Age. They have changed surprisingly little since then. Their fundamental hallmarks have always been inculcation of ancient truths, obedience and boredom. In the beginning schools were needed to train scribes, who did the scribbling for Pharaohs, who did the infinitely more important job of personifying divinity and running the world. The fact that most Pharaohs were illiterate troubled them very little. But all that has changed. Schools have flourished so grandly that we now routinely equate schooling with education and education with virtue. In this sense the United States has a corner en virtue, for the world has never seem a system of schooling that is more expensive, sprawling and robust.