Common Problems, Different Solutions

The provision, in most industrialized democracies, of public funding for schools that differ from the state system in religion or pedagogy has the effect of encouraging philosophical diversity and school-level decision making alongside a substantial degree of curriculum alignment and with various forms of government protection for the interests of at-risk pupils. Each has found its own way to balance between autonomy and accountability, between freedom and justice; this article reflects on the particular balance point adopted by Denmark, France, and Spain. It is not often that American policymakers interest themselves in how other countries organize their educational systems. Now and then, it is true, the public is warned that American students fare poorly by comparison with those in many of the other industrialized nations, and there have been some valuable studies of classroom practices in Japan and elsewhere that could be--but seldom are--suggestive for American educators. All in all, though, American debates about education occur in a sort of vacuum, and it is common for the future teachers in my classes at Boston University to protest that circumstances in this country are so unique that we have nothing to learn from other countries and their educational systems.