Our Educational Reform and the Moral Education of Our Children

Five years ago, in the spring of 1983, A Nation At Risk, a report on the state of American education, was released. More than six million copies of this federally sponsored report have been distributed and its language has become part of the educational landscape. Children in trouble are now routinely referred to as "at risk." The characterization of American education as a "rising tide of mediocrity" seems to have struck a responsive chord in the public. Whether it simply happened to be the first of an inevitable series of analyses or whether it awakened the tumult of concern regarding the state of the American classroom, in the last five years, few months have gone by without a report on education by some blue-ribbon commission, foundation. Or professional association. Over thirty national reports on education have been released since A Nation At Risk was published, as well as over three hundred reports from state commissions and task forces. In recent months, the pace of reports seems to have slackened, suggesting either that the issue is in a phase of gestation or simply that the nation has turned to other problems.