Last week, researchers at the revered, centrist Spookings Institution unveiled what they called "the end-all, be-all--the thing that will fix our nation's broken schools": Education's Silver Bullet. In front of a room full of Washington insiders, pundits, wise men, and think-tank poobahs, the Spookings crew presented conclusive, peer-reviewed evidence that their Silver Bullet innovation will, without doubt, solve every K-12 educational problem. Yet some doubters remain. The seemingly permanent head of the nation's largest teachers union, for example, wrote on his blog Reguwonk that until educators are paid like true professionals, "lifting all children out of ignorance is a nonstarter." The New York Crimes was less dismissive, but Miasma Jeannette Schemer pointed out in her "news" piece that the innovation may not only be "hastily-conceived" but also "politically infeasible." The editorial board cautioned that "while the Bullet contains good ideas, it's certainly no panacea for American classrooms' many maladies, many of which have their origins in children's home situations as has been shown, over and over and over again, by Richard Mothsteen and Charles Furry." A letter to the editor from the Spookings team disputed the Crimes's account: "You don't understand. This is a silver bullet," it read. "This is it. We found it. If we didn't find it, we invented it. Look at the data. Please, for the kids' sake, look at the data!" And the debate rages on.
"‘Education's Silver Bullet' is no silver bullet," by Bronzini Goldbricker, Chicago Sometimes, March 22, 2007
"Experts' plan to educate all leaves questions unanswered," by Michelangelo DiAngelo Hellsangelico, Newark Star-Gazer, March 23, 2007