Five Themes of American Conventional Wisdom Part 5: Nationalism

So in the fifth installment of this series, based on my friend Ron Miller’s parsing of American culture in the first chapter of his great book, What Are Schools For?, I’m plunging into his thoughts on American nationalism, which weaves together the first four themes. When I reread his words on this topic, it seems […]

Five Themes of American Conventional Wisdom Part 4: Capitalism

So the fourth installment of this series, based on my friend Ron Miller’s take on American cultural conventions, I’m going to look at his thoughts on Capitalism and how it plays out in American conventional thinking, based on the first chapter of his very insightful book, What Are Schools For? Ah “capitalism”… a word that […]

Five Themes of American Conventional Wisdom Part 3: Restrained Democratic Ideology

Continuing to look at the first section of his wonderful book, What Are Schools For?, where author (and friend) Ron Miller calls out five dominant cultural assumptions that he believes are at the root of conventional American thinking, particularly conventional American thinking about education… 1. Puritan (Calvinist/Protestant) Theology 2. Scientism & the Culture of Professionalism […]

Five Themes of American Conventional Wisdom

In the first section of his wonderful book, What Are Schools For?, (looking at the history of education in America and the possibilities for a more holistic educational view) author (and my friend) Ron Miller calls out five dominant cultural assumptions that he believes are at the root of conventional American thinking, particularly conventional American […]

Education & American History

The public education system has played a unique role in American history as perhaps the key institution for societal evolution. That system’s roots and impact are beyond most conventional tellings of that history. Click on the highlighted title to read the rest of the piece. Five Themes of American Conventional Wisdom – Looking at the […]