Closing of the American Mind

While pawing through a box of old books I came across this book by Allan Bloom - The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students. Granted the title is a little gloom and doom and it dates from 1987 but I can't help but wonder if the author's premise is much closer to the truth than many would like to believe.

I haven't actually read the book - yet - but it's definitely given me pause and made me consider the fundamental differences between typical American pedagogy and that practiced in other developed nations. Over the past few decades we've seen the steady and disturbing decrease in the ranking of our educational system vis-a-vis these same nations and, apart from the dismal No Child Left Behind, there's been no serious overhaul of the education curriculum for nearly 50 years. What are we waiting for?

P.S. - I find a certain pleasure in the fact that this was my grandfather's; yet another link in my social-political leanings.