Policy makers in education have long embraced reform. Unfortunately, education reforms have consistently been plagued by the reformers' lack of knowledge and appreciation of the history of education. Accordingly, the latest reform, touted as a panacea, meets with failure, and the search for the magic elixir begins anew. The ahistorical nature of the American nation, and hence of its schools, undergirds the search for a panacea. As Seymour Sarason has pointed out in The Case for Change, reforms are doomed to failure because policy makers underestimate the complexity of what they are up against and are unable or unwilling to use the cumulative experience humans have acquired over the years. There is also the attraction of that which is novel, which often turns out to be no more than a fad. Compounding this fascination with the novel is their tendency to "jump on the bandwagon," giving scant thought before the leap. Add to these reasons the American trait of feeling compelled to get everything done in a hurry; the crusading fervor of the reformers, who seem driven to depict present practices as worthless and their own actions as redeeming; and the tendency of innovators to reduce complicated interactions to one-shot, sure-fire remedies. (Contains 50 notes.)