What happened was that the very noisy, well-orchestrated criticism of a very few people was buried. We're beginning a second decade of sustained interest in school reform. These kinds of successes are rarely reported by the media. One reason, I think, that the public is disinterested in school reform as it is widely defined in the media is that they really don't see much value in the approach that's being pushed. They're not so much against reforms they hear about, but they don't see them as speaking to their particular kids.
Education is a very emotional enterprise for parents concerned about their children.
If you remember that, you don't start reform by appointing a governor's commission on school standards, even though that may be a worthy thing to do. My experience is that there's a lot of public interest in reform when you get down to local people and local issues. And that's where reform has got to take place. Ted Sizer is Director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and Chairman of the Coalition of Essential Schools, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912. John O'Neil is Senior Editor of Educational Leadership .