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In the midst of the culture wars that swirl around schools; the fractious, intractable school politics; the drumbeat of economic competitiveness; and the testing, testing, testing - in the midst of all this, it is easy to lose sight of the broader purpose and grand vision of the common public school.

The economic motive has always been a significant factor in the spread of mass education in the United States, and as someone from the working class who has achieved financial mobility from schooling, the importance of the link between education and economic well-being is not lost on me.

But this economic focus can restrict our vision of what school ought to be about: the full sweep of growth and development, for both individuals and for a democratic society. This narrowing of discourse, this pinching of what we talk about when we talk about school, is evident in the national and regional discussions of the goals of education.

We need public talk that links education to a more decent, thoughtful, open society. Talk that raises in us as a people the appreciation for deliberation and reflection, or for taking intellectual risks and thinking widely - for the sheer power and pleasure of using our minds, alone or in concert with others. We need a discourse that inspires young people to think gracefully and moves young adults to become teachers and foster such development. 

I'm not simply longing for rhetorical flourish here, although a little scholastic uplift would be a welcome thing. Public discourse, heard frequently enough and over time, affects the way we think, vote, and lead our lives. I worry that the dominant vocabulary about schooling limits our shared respect for the extraordinary nature of thinking and learning and lessens our sense of social obligation. So it becomes possible for us to affirm that the most meaningful evidence of learning is a score on a standardized test, or to reframe the public good in favor of fierce and unequal competition for a particular kind of academic honors. Education is reduced to a cognitive horse race.

When was the last time you heard extensive, deliberative public talk that places school failure in the context of joblessness, urban politics, a diminished tax base, unequal funding, race and class bias?  Or heard a story of achievement that includes discussion of curiosity, reflectiveness, uncertainty, a willingness to take a chance, a blunder?  How about accounts of reform that present change as alternatively difficult, exhilarating, ambiguous, promising - and that find reform not in a device, technique or structure but in the way we think about teaching and learning? For that matter, think of how rarely we hear of a commitment to public education as the center of a free society.  We need a richer public discussion than the one we have now.

Mike Rose, The Mind at Work, Possible Lives, Lives on the Boundary, public education, American workers, books, Penguin Books