The American Superintendency and the Vulnerability thesis

These articles are based on Raymond E. Callahan's, Education and the Cult of Efficiency, and his views about the deleterious effects big business had on the administration of public schools of America, particularly in the early 1900s. It is particularly salient as we approach a new century and a political watershed that proposes to make it easier for American business to make profits.

This issue's purpose is to reexamine the vulnerability thesis and its effect on the administration and governance of public education. There are those who turn every question in education into a question of curriculum/instruction or pupil achievement. Although such questions are worthy ones, they are not addressed here. Rather, the contributors' reexamination is of the organization and administrative system which drives those other decisions. It was their intent to review Callahan's work and indicate where others have misread, misinterpreted, and misused what he had intended to say. Their purpose was to clarify his intent, what he had hoped to achieve, how well he succeeded, and what may be left to do. If one disagrees with the notion that business has influenced public education in America -- sometimes to the detriment of the American people -- comments and data are invited. That is the purpose of inquiry and the journal has provided a forum in which the debate may begin.