School Peril

By Thomas J. Cottle

Somewhere in my mind, I carry my father's admonition to always undertake research in which life-and-death matters live at the heart of the inquiry. Even though his role as a physician clearly dictated this sort of philosophy, there is something compelling about my father's charge that has stayed with me. I know that research on education meets his standard, because there is no doubt that school can destroy people, adults and children alike, just as surely as it can redeem them, breathe life into their lives as no other institution can.

Too often, the nation's attention is seized, as it was again this year, by senseless acts of violence committed on school grounds. But the fact is that life-and-death matters play out every day in our schools, unremarked. The powerful writings of Jonathan Kozol, William Ayers, Robert Coles, Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, Neil Postman, Herbert Kohl, Alfie Kohn, George Dennison, and others document this over and over again.

On an individual-student level, it is common practice today to turn to schools to pick up the pieces of irresponsible or inadequate parenting, or, more generally, to protect the lives of imperiled children. In fact, this has become an automatic, if not reflexive, action. Newspapers are filled with accounts of schools offering programs (which many contend should be taught at home) on such subjects as sexuality, substance abuse, the effects of divorce on families, violence prevention, gender issues, racism, birth control, and other health concerns. As I write, there is even a strong movement afoot for schools to offer courses on parenting. All this,...