If the name James Traub sound familiar to you, there’s a reason for that.
A prolific author of several books including CITY ON A HILL, Traub has also written several memorable education-focused magazine articles for the New York Times magazine and other national publications.
In this new interview, Traub discusses his latest book, THE CRADLE OF CITIZENSHIP, about the Classical schools model and other promising approaches that prioritize civic education.
It’s a fascinating time for the 275-school Classical schools model, given the growth of private school choice, growing concerns about the lack of rigor in too many public schools, and the seeming lack of accountability in too many private ones.
Traub also describes what makes covering education so difficult to do well — and so easy to do poorly:
“It’s hard to really describe well the central transaction of a school, which is to say this transaction between a teacher and a student, this act of learning, because it’s something in a way impalpable — because it happens inside a kid’s head,” says Traub.
“It’s so much easier to describe things like the atmosphere in the hall — you know, is it crazy or not? — or all of the political questions or demographic questions or racial questions that surround the classroom.”
“The hard thing is to really try to understand and show, and show what is happening — or isn’t happening — between a teacher and a student. Because all the other stuff is surround.”
Watch or read the interview transcript above (or on YouTube), or listen to the conversation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Previously from The Grade
I was wrong about the school culture wars. (by UPENN’s Jonathan Zimmerman)
Who killed school reform? (with Steven Wilson about THE LOST DECADE)
Literacy, blue-state politics, & media reluctance (with The Argument’s Kelsey Piper)
Inside the Harper’s magazine story about teaching at an ESA-funded micro-school (with Chandler Fritz)
