Critique of 'Someone Has to Fail': A Different Perspective

David Labaree in his book Someone has to Fail, has missed a few points in this last chapter and this book. His last chapter is as optimistic as the six before it. He concludes that essentially all reform is hopeless due to the resiliency of the current system. I agree that the system is very resilient largely because of the autonomy of each single classroom, school, system and State in the American System. The real failure is calling this book of assumptions a study. He concludes failure where I argue failure does not exist. How have social reforms like nutrition, immunization, transportation, kindergarten, Title I, Title IX, Head Start, Environmental education and bullying prevention failed? If you think bullying prevention has failed

I do see how this is an easy sell for politicians and reformers. This driver is also a recipe for disaster. I think our schools have done an outstanding job of accomplishing their social, economic and democratic goals. Our country is the leading superpower in the world and our quality of life and social mobility is unparalleled. The “Nation at Risk” paper, while helpful in some regards, has produced a negative self-image of American Schools that leads “customers” to seek reform from misunderstanding. We will see negative impacts from these initiatives like school choice in the near

To guide someone inherently begins were that person is at in relation to the context of the relationship. In education guiding different teachers looks vastly different based on the point that person is at as a professional educator. A teacher that is beginning and has yet to master classroom management and pedagogy will need a more technical guidance that one who is an artful self-directed practitioner. That is not to say that guidance is not necessary, just that it would be vastly different. The second example would benefit more from cognitive coaching type supervision than the former. While a more structured series of conversations, observations and evaluations led to better practice for new