In this article, the author discusses his contention that even the best of the best of American schools are not quality schools. He also observes that the curriculum that has been in place since 1892 was the main reason why schools cannot offer the best in quality education. He cites the ten problems that have plagued the American educational system: (1) Aimlessness; (2) Lack of organization; (3) Neglected content; (4) Fragmented knowledge; (5) Fuzzy priorities; (6) Irrelevant content; (7) Too simplistic; (8) Overemphasis on symbols; (9) Fear; and (10) Too much stuff. The author argues that the problems are all products of a process social scientists call "institutionalization." Sadly, the current thrust of reform reinforces the process of institutionalization. The curriculum is assumed to be sound. Poor performance then must be due to laziness or incompetence. So fingers are pointed. Screws tightened. Bars raised. Frills eliminated. Rigor demanded. Controls imposed. Standards elaborated. Testing programs expanded. Rewards and penalties increased and after a brief, test-focused improvement spurt, performance levels off or gets worse. He suggests that since the diagnosis is wrong, so also is the cure. A dysfunctional curriculum pursued with greater diligence simply accelerates deterioration. As an alternative solution, he suggests that the primary aim of a general education is to expand student ability to make sense of experience. It is the process all of us already use every day. Helping the young surface, clarify, refine and make formal, deliberate use of their basic sense-making process moves them from "knowing" to "knowing what they know," with far-reaching intellectual and philosophical consequences. Every academic discipline, every school subject, every teacher's favorite lesson and every student's most mundane experience can be used to surface and elaborate this intuitive system, but the emphasis changes from covering the content to using it as a vehicle for illustrating and elaborating the sense-making process. He concludes by saying that the solution he suggests merely requires broadening teacher understanding of the task at hand.