ABSTRACT
I believe that the policies, procedures, and programs represented in the Goals 2000 legislation represent a significant crystallization of recent trends in educational thought so much so that they can be used as a telling if not chilling index of a quite clear social and cultural consensus on a number of critically important professional and public issues. This legislation, its support, and the nature of the critical response to it tell us a great deal about the present state of the continuous debate on the basic direction of American society and the role of public education in the determination and shaping of the direction. In this essay, I want to comment on those aspects of the legislation that seem to have provoked the least negative response, as it is my assumption that these are the aspects that represent the greatest amount of consensus by the public and the profession. Like the dog in the Sherlock Holmes story, what is significant here is the absence of barking and howling, or more precisely, the particular rhythms and qualities of the barking and the silences.
