Moving Forward, Looking Back: Renewing the Struggle for an American Curriculum

Abstract

Rationales for public school reform in the United States are often tied to historical perspectives on the birth and development of schools and are buffeted by the assumption that the history of public schooling says much about how reform efforts should proceed. This interpretive article explores 2 such perspectives on 21st-century schools: those of Diane Ravitch, distinguished educational historian and commentator; and those of Herbert Kliebard, considered one of the preeminent authorities on the development of the American curriculum. This investigation reveals that Ravitch's longstanding condemnation of progressivism and curricular differentiation as the source of what ails public schools fails to account for the demise of the schoolteacher as the central force in early 21st-century schools—a factor that Kliebard identifies as crucial to understanding the nature of 21st-century schools. It is then suggested that recommitment to teachers as the educational center of gravity in public schools may provide new insight into understanding how school reform on the 21st century might move forward.