How to educate a citizen: the power of shared knowledge to unify a nation

Part I. The decline of the common school. When our schools abandoned commonality, we became a nation at risk ; The child-centered classroom ; "Nobody leaves": the dazzling success of shared-knowledge schools ; The problem starts at our teacher-training institutes

Part II. Science debunks a child-centered education. Culture, not nature, knows best

says nature ; The lessons of educational failure and success around the world

Part III. American ethnicity: will the common school make a comeback? Commonality in a multiethnic nation ; How to improve the "common core" ; Patriotism: shared knowledge and kindness

Afterword: What can be done right now?