Conclusion: Public Schooling for a Common Security

Speaking to the Progressive Education Association in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression, renowned sociologist and radical educator George Counts observed a historical moment similar to our own that he described as “full of promise, as well as menace.” In language as fresh and as relevant as anything written about education today, Counts observed that:

there is no good education apart from some conception of the nature of the good society. Education is not some pure and mystical essence that remains unchanged from everlasting to everlasting. On the contrary, it is of the earth and must respond to every convulsion or tremor that shakes the planet. It must always be a function of time and circumstance.