But his early life had been geared to ambition, and he felt he must accomplish something, do something, make himself a better man, and his country a better place. This he had been taught as a child, this he still believed.  (Louis L’Amour, Chap. 1, Matagorda)

The schools have always made it their business to bring this about (make the country a better place), but have they ever done so? What we witness in Washington today would say emphatically that no, they haven’t, and they are perhaps further away from doing so than ever before (BT, before Trump).

Also for what it’s worth, in regard to those thousands who go on writing about the schools, those who for the nth time would reform them, all those perennials who would make them, if they could, what they were meant to be, ——they are still repeating ad nauseum the same old (tired phrases). See this month’s, What Is Education For? By Danielle Allen et al. in the Boston Review.