Where We Stand
Echoes of Sputnik, Calls to Action
In January of 1958, the Columbia Broadcasting System took a bold step to use the relatively new technology of television to inform the American people about an issue of real concern. Just a few months earlier, the Russians had beaten us to the punch in space exploration by launching Sputnik, the first manmade satellite to orbit Earth. The U.S. government wasn’t saying much, and the country’s science and engineering community had little capacity to explain things to the general public. So it was left to a group of journalists and former war correspondents at CBS to fill the void. Their program, “Where We Stand,” not only provided the nation with its first class in Space Race 101, but also started a grassroots mobilization that eventually allowed Congress—and later a new president—to set the ambitious goal of reaching the moon that we ultimately achieved.
This month, the Public Broadcasting Service is doing something similar. The documentary “Where We Stand: America’s Schools in the 21st Century,” which will begin airing on PBS stations Sept. 15, takes its title and animating spirit from the CBS broadcast of 50 years ago. Hosted by Judy Woodruff, supported by groups such as the National Governors Association, ED in ’08, and the Council of Chief State School Officers and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the program examines K-12 education in the same way that earlier broadcast looked at Sputnik. It doesn’t point fingers or assign blame, but instead shows viewers where the American education system stands among the world’s most advanced nations. And since our relative position is not encouraging, the program’s creators hope that it too will be a national call to action.
The timing of the documentary is no accident. With the presidential candidates focused primarily on issues such as Iraq and Afghanistan and the 3E’s—economy, environment, and energy—this program will ask an important question: Why is the fourth E—education—not seen as worthy of equal attention? It is the one systemic investment that ultimately fuels our success (or failure) in...
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