When I grew up, my parents believed that General Motors was a fail-safe stock that could guarantee the future. No one would have predicted that an institution so central to the American dream would one day be scrambling to turn a profit, let alone stay in business. But the unthinkable has happened, and I wonder how the crumbling of GM, along with many other hallowed institutions, will impact education. A piece of our society this big can’t disappear without inviting other radical changes.
In particular, I wonder whether public sentiment about the American high school will suddenly shift, at a speed we didn’t expect. Think for a moment about three parallels:
