62: Committing to Critical Inquiry: Uncovering the Questions

It is really all Tom Barone’s fault. He dared to ask a few questions with deceptively simple answers—questions such as, “What important things can be taught and learned in school that will indeed endure? Are only certain sorts of teachers able to influence students over the long run? What kinds of teachers are those? What if a teacher’s lessons run counter to those taught by other significant figures in the lives of students and by powerful forces in the larger culture? To what extent can a teacher heroically, single-handedly, teach against that grain and still touch eternity?” (Barone, 2001, p. 1). That launched a series of events so complex that it took him an entire book to describe them. In fact, I suspect that he still hasn’t truly finished. (Why do you think his articles keep appearing everywhere?!)