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Children in a kindergarten classroom at the Horace Mann School, Tulsa, Okla., 1917.
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Yes, Schools Should Teach Morality. But Whose Morals?

Belief that schools must teach moral values is older than public schools themselves. But whose morals?
by Mallory Hutchings-Tryon via Made by History on January 9, 2024
A kindergarten teacher coaches a group of crouched children to duck and cover in a national air raid drill, Chicago, 1954.
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The Politics of Fear Is Damaging American Education—And Has Been for Decades

Politicians have often sought to remedy educational panic with remedies that do more harm than good.
by Diana D'Amico Pawlewicz via Made by History on December 14, 2023
School house with Black children playing around it.

How Reconstruction Created American Public Education

Freedpeople and their advocates persuaded the nation to embrace schooling for all.
by Adam Harris via The Atlantic on November 13, 2023
Painting of 19th century British schoolgirls walking in a group

Hearts and Minds

What we fight about when we fight about schools.
by Paul Tough via Lapham’s Quarterly on December 31, 2022
Demonstrators gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court holding signs with "Let us pray" and "young women for America."
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2022 Saw Conservative Gains on Education Issues. But They May Be Short-lived.

Conservatives’ veneration for the founders opens the door for a secular vision for America’s public schools.
by Adam Laats via Made by History on December 30, 2022
Cartoon of History of American Slavery book chasing a child.

They Want Your Child!

How right-wing school panics seek to repeal modernity and progress.
by Rick Perlstein via The Forum on July 22, 2022
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) listens to former president Donald Trump as they speak during a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border wall on June 30, 2021, in Pharr, Tex. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
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The New Threat to Good Schooling for Minority Americans

The right might be targeting a seminal Supreme Court case that protects educational fairness.
by Rann Miller via Made by History on July 10, 2022
Photo of Hispanic students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance

First Roe, Then Plyler? The GOP’s 40-Year Fight to Keep Undocumented Kids Out of Public School

“The schoolhouse door cannot be closed to one of modern society’s most marginalized, most vilified groups.”
by Isabela Dias via Mother Jones on June 15, 2022
Samantha Hull looks for books at the Ephrata Public Library on March 2. Hull has been fighting book bans as a school librarian in Lancaster County, Pa., where conservatives are pushing to remove books that touch on gender identity and racism.
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Conservatives Long Ago Lost The War Over America’s Public Schools

As conservative groups give up on public schools, the fight today is about looting public resources.
by Adam Laats via Made by History on May 24, 2022
Florida Governor Rob DeSantis addresses a crowd behind a podium reading "freedom from indoctrination"
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Too Many White Parents Don’t Understand The True Purpose of Public Schools

Black Americans continue to fight for access to the public school systems their forebears created, against a history of white backlash and appropriation.
by Diana D'Amico Pawlewicz via Made by History on May 3, 2022
A stand from 1925, selling William Jennings Bryan's books, featuring a sign reading "Anti-Evolution League: The Conflict, Hell and The High School"

Why the School Wars Still Rage

From evolution to anti-racism, parents and progressives have clashed for a century over who gets to tell our origin stories.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on March 10, 2022
logo for the website, a clouded background and the words Law and Political Economy Project.

The Long History of Anti-CRT Politics

The history of anti-racial justice rhetoric.
by Aziz Rana via LPE Project on November 30, 2021
The evolution of man figures, redacted, crossed out.

The Conservative War on Education That Failed

A century ago, the most effective school-ban campaign in American history set the pattern: noise and fear, but not much change in what schools actually teach.
by Adam Laats via The Atlantic on November 23, 2021
President George W. Bush signing the No Child Left Behind act surrounded by children and legislators.
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This is the Problem with Ranking Schools

We keep trying to assess schools quantitatively instead of grappling with some deeper problems.
by Ethan Hutt via Made by History on October 22, 2021
The 101st Airborne outside Central High School in Little Rock
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Violence Over Schools is Nothing New in America

Schools have long been ideological and physical battlegrounds — especially when it comes to citizenship and civil rights.
by Sherman Dorn via Made by History on September 29, 2021
1890s American schoolboys

American Education Is Founded on White Race Theory

The conservative hysteria over critical race theory is a refusal to acknowledge that American schools have always taught a white-centric view of U.S. history.
by Anthony Conwright via The New Republic on July 29, 2021
People pose in front of the Stonewall Inn on the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York, on June 28, 2019.

The Republican Plot to Ban LGBTQ History in Public Schools

In a growing number of states, the GOP is pushing “Don’t Say Gay” laws to prevent students from learning about the triumphs and struggles of LGBTQ Americans.
by Gabriel Arana via The New Republic on June 28, 2021
Pleasant Plains School in Hertford County, North Carolina, active 1920-1950.

How the Rosenwald Schools Shaped a Generation of Black Leaders

Photographer Andrew Feiler documented how the educational institutions shaped a generation of black leaders.
by Michael J. Solender via Smithsonian on March 30, 2021
Students walk in the streets of Uvalde, Texas during the 1970 Uvalde School Walkout.

Remembering the Uvalde Public School Walkout of 1970

During the heyday of the Chicano Movement, school walkouts were organized to disrupt what activists called “the ongoing mis-education of Chicano students.”
by Alfredo R. Santos via Ibero Aztlan on March 19, 2021
Illustration of a Lancasterian school building

A History of Technological Hype

When it comes to education technology, school leaders have often leaped before they looked.
by Adam Laats, Victoria E. M. Cain via Phi Delta Kappan on February 22, 2021
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Public Education

From the politics of access and funding to the craft of teaching, debates about education have always boiled down to one fundamental question: What – and who – are public schools for?

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