Argues that if conformity is what culture demands, then schools that emphasize dull, fixed, ritualistic, and conformist behavior are functional. (Author)

Criticisms that competency training for teachers is relegating teaching to a series of automatic tasks bereft of intellect or creativity. (RA)

Nazi Germany, one of the most literate nations in history, exterminated millions of European Jews. Why did this happen? For two generations the question has haunted the world's conscience. Now, in a series of experiments called the most morally significant in modern psychology, a Yale professor has a piece of the answer. (Editor)

In a companion article (EA 504 897), a Yale professor discussed his psychological experiments to find some of the reasons for Nazi Germany's extermination of millions of Jews. Comments on that article. (JF)

Compares pedagogical practices in an eighth-grade middle school classroom with those a of one-room Amish school studied in an earlier work. Taken together, the two settings suggest that one must seek "the present status and performance of the U.S. education system" not in the usual indicators, but in the contradictory beliefs and…

Addressing the underlying tension that generally exists between school-level autonomy and systemwide uniformity, the author's nine commandments include recognizing the school as the key organizational unit in public education, selecting and nurturing first-rate principals, and granting more budgetary authority to the school level. (JBM)