John Merrow (Harvard Graduate School of Education, ’73) will discuss his book Addicted to Reform: A 12-Step Program to Rescue Public Education at the Gutman Conference Center. In Addicted to Reform, Merrow argues that current school reform efforts are too focused on “symptoms” like graduation rates instead of the root cause of our problems: an antiquated approach to schooling that cannot fulfill the needs of the twenty-first century. Year after year, we rely on standards like Common Core that place unfair burdens on students and underresourced public schools. We launch reforms that ask “heroic teachers” to compensate for societal problems like poverty and inequality. And just when modern technologies allow students to move at individual speeds and different levels, we reduce kids to test scores, producing graduates who never learn to ask questions, dig deep, or discover and follow their passions. 

This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.