One bizarre aspect of any discussion about public education is that everybody tiptoes around the real reason why the schools are mediocre. We spend billions of dollars. Millions of people work in this area. The whole country embraces public education. So why do we have low literacy rates, widespread ignorance among ordinary citizens about simple things, etc., etc.?? The people in charge can’t be trying to do a good job. Put another way, whatever it is these people mean by “education” is not what most parents want for their kids. John Dewey and everybody else in charge of public education...