Review of An Education: How I Changed My Mind about Schools and Almost Everything Else, by Diane Ravitch

An Education is a complicated book.We can actually think of it as two books.The first half is an at times interesting but largely uncritical account of Diane Ravitch's middle-class life up to the beginnings of her career as an influential author and member of conservative institutions and groups.It's an honest account but doesn't really connect Ravitch's biography to larger dynamics.A dose of biographical class analysis, one that is connected to a more serious discussion of the gendered realities that women such as Ravitch faced, would have helped.The second half feels very different.It becomes a tale of her slow transition to a more educationally and socially critical orientation.As I'll point to later on, while this part of the volume is the more interesting and substantive part, it too could have benefitted from a clearer connection to critical traditions that actually provided the space for Ravitch's transformation. Ravitch describes the volume in the following way:This is a book about my life, about admitting "I was wrong," and about how important it is to say it out loud.For many years, I advocated strongly for certain ideas in the field of education based on competition, standardization, and accountability.I felt sure such policies would produce higher test scores.But when I saw what happened after they were put into practice, I discovered that they didn't work and had bad consequences for students, teachers, and communities….My thinking evolved into a different political and social philosophy.To use current parlance, I went from being a staunch conservative to being "woke."(p. 1)