Should We All Skip School? The History, Politics, and Purpose of Education

Welcome to Deep Dives and Drafts! If you're new, please check out our group page to learn more about us here.

This month, we’re heading back to school — but not for a pop quiz. We’ll explore how education systems shape everything from opportunity and inequality to creativity and conformity.

Some themes we might explore:

• Comparing Education Systems: History of the U.S. school system, how other countries approach education (Finland, Japan, Germany, South Korea), charter lotteries, homeschooling, Montessori, democratic schools, and alternative education models
• Metrics and Outcomes: Standardized testing, grades, gifted programs, college admissions, credential inflation, “success” in school vs. success in life, and whether schools actually prepare people to think critically
• Privilege, Oppression, and Access: Funding disparities, race and class divides, disability access, school zoning, the digital divide, and how privilege shapes educational opportunity
• The Elite University Machine: Prestige culture, networking and social capital, the ideas in Excellent Sheep, perfectionism, burnout, and whether elite schools create leaders or high-performing conformists
• Teachers and the Culture Wars: Underpaid educators, teacher burnout, unions, curriculum battles, parental rights movements, and why education has become such a political battleground

Resources to spark conversation (more to come when I have time - feel free to suggest!!):

• Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz
• The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley
• Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol
• The Teacher Wars by Dana Goldstein

How does this group work?
Each month we will select a topic to explore. Participants use the list of books, podcasts, documentaries to learn about the topic prior to the MeetUp- this resource list is non-exhaustive but provides a solid foundation for discourse. At the MeetUp, we chat for an hour or two about anything we learned. Our aim is to foster intellectual engagement, thoughtful dialogue, and collective learning.
Meetups will be in public spaces (bars) where folks can order beverages if they wish.