Origins

We began our quest by helping designing a school. An urban charter school, to be specific. In this effort, we did not want to put our heads together as experienced educators and come up with a pretty good plan for a pretty good school. That's been done any number of times already.

We wanted to know what really works in reality.

So we hit the books hard, and examined not programs, but successful schools, especially successful, poor, urban schools. How did they, "despite the odds," succeed at giving at-risk children an academic education to rival the affluent suburbs?

What we found agreed with our common sense: the best schools have a rigorous academic curriculum, based not around "critical thinking" or "problem solving" but around content knowledge and skills. (It turns out that children who actually know something are better problem-solvers than those who've been taught only "how to solve problems.)

Another thing these schools did is have genuinely high standards of behavior, to accompany their academic standards. They didn't care about the so-called "at-risk" label, these schools taught children like they were elite prep school students. Their philosophy is "No Excuses."

We recently opened a fortune cookie to read, "Good sense is the master of Human Life."

We have been frustrated that so many basically good folks have taken leave of their senses in embracing any number of Progressive reforms that are supposedly going to improve our schools (any day now). It seems to us that the true path is so clear, it is right in front of our faces but so many can't see it.

Sometimes, when we get down, we become convinced we have a Cassandra complex. Cursed to tell the truth, but not believed.

But we remain optimistic for success in this country, especially in our cities. Our teachers and administrators are hard-working folks, but most have been taught that "progressive" methods are the ones to use, and we can't blame them for being misled.

But please don't take our word for it. Look for yourself not at theory, but at proven, long-term, school success. Hopefully you'll see what we see.

And the children of this nation will be the better for it.