Popular Education and Its Discontents

Distinguished historian of education Cremin ( Traditions of American Education ) comments on salient aspects of the nation's schooling in these three lectures delivered in 1989. After identifying ``popularization,'' ``multitudinousness'' and ``politicization'' as abiding characteristics of American education and as sources of crisis, he distances himself from recent doomsayers. In his view, the system's crises and its strengths stem from attempts to balance the ``tremendous variety of demands Americans have made on their schools and colleges,'' and from efforts to provide for the extraordinary diversity of young people. Cremin's reflections offer guidance for educational policymakers who face the complex imperatives of the 1990s. (Jan.)