Public Education: Too Many Undisciplined Brains

Max Rafferty, who calls himself a "conservative revolutionist," had hardly been sworn in last week as California's superintendent of public instruction when he let go with a bracing blast at the "pablumized" progressive education that he says afflicts California. If he has his way, Rafferty will bring about "nothing less than the philosophical-educational reorientation of the greatest state in the union."

Says Rafferty: "California leads in school buildings, supplies, equipment, number of years of training for teachers, psychology and methodology and in salary scale. But in the area of subject-matter achievement...