When I Was Young, I Was Religious.

In Public Schooling, Social Policy Has Been Turned Back Almost One Hundred Years.

But When I Went To Harvard, It Kind Of Got Washed Out Of Me, Partly Because People Made Fun Of You In College. If You Said You Believed In God, They Would Look At You Clinically, You Know, Suggest That You Needed A Referral.

But What Is Now Encompassed By The One Word (“school”) Are Two Very Different Kinds Of Institutions That, In Function, Finance And Intention, Serve Entirely Different Roles. Both Are Needed For Our Nation’s Governance. But Children In One Set Of Schools Are Educated To Be Governors; Children In The Other Set Of Schools Are Trained For Being Governed. The Former Are Given The Imaginative Range To Mobilize Ideas For Economic Growth; The Latter Are Provided With The Discipline To Do The Narrow Tasks The First Group Will Prescribe.

The Contrasts Between What Is Spent Today To Educate A Child In The Poorest New York City Neighborhoods, Where Teacher Salaries Are Often Even Lower Than The City Averages, And Spending Levels In The Wealthiest Suburban Areas Are Daunting Challenges To Any Hope New Yorkers Might Retain That Even Semblances Of Fairness Still Prevail.

I Wrote The First Book, And I Thought People Would Say: 'separate And Unequal Schools In The City Of Boston? I Didn't Know That. Let's Go Out And Fix It.'