Frederick Hess:

It’s been a helluva fall. But it’s finally Thanksgiving, which means it’s time for some gratitude. Indeed, those in and around American education should be steeped in gratitude for the legacy that’s been gifted to us. Now, I know how old school that sounds—especially in an era when just a third of Gen-Z says the U.S. is a fair society and less than a third of high school seniors think their nation is the best country in the world. I mean, you needn’t look very hard to find curricular materials that depict Thanksgiving as yet one more instance of settler colonialism.

Old school or not, though, gratitude is foundational to healthy schools and civic institutions. Mike McShane and I discussed this at length earlier this year in our book, Getting Education Right. This seems like the perfect time to share a bit about our appreciation for the legacy we’ve all inherited. With your indulgence, I’m just going to go ahead and share an extended passage from the book. We wrote: