Criticism of U.S. public schools is nothing new

Relentless criticism of today's public education system has generated the perception that schools were better in the past, according to The Golden Age of Education That Never Was, an article by Walt Gardner in his Reality Check blog at the Education Week website. The truth is, there has never been an "educational Eden" in the U.S. and public schools have always been the subject of complaints that are very similar to what we hear today. In fact, as early as 1845, criticism in of public schools centered on standardized test scores. Gardner's rewind through the decades provides an instructive lesson, with today's parallels noted in parenthesis. Read the full article here.