Sputnik moments and other tall tales about crises in public education

02-25-2011

Blog by Gary Ravani/Thoughts on Public Education

Exhortations about “Sputnik moments” have been peppering the speeches of many public figures lately. The launching of a satellite into Earth orbit in 1957 by the now defunct Soviet Union was assumed to demonstrate that the U.S. had fallen behind another world power in defense technology and science education. Except, that wasn’t the case.The late education researcher Gerald Bracey recounted the actual history of events. The U.S. had been fully capable of launching a satellite prior to the Soviets, but had not done so for political reasons. President Eisenhower had wanted to be sure space was considered “international,” and Sputnik provided the precedent he needed. Sputnik has always been a chimera. President Obama recently invoked the Sputnik metaphor and then called for an “Apollo Project” that would include a huge funding effort in the areas of innovative technology, infrastructure, and education. (more...)

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