Joel, thanks for the connection to the loss of the commons and Thompson. I need to take a look at this again, with schooling in mind, it’s a brilliant connection.

Other readers, take a look at Joel’s blog on this topic, and the comments thread starting there. Interesting stuff.

I’ve commented at greater length on my blog.

I am so sick of the “Tragedy of the Commons” myth. It didn’t happen that way. I wish E.P. Thompson’s “The Makings of the English Working Class” was universally assigned in colleges, at least, and the fact of the Enclosures Act taught as well.

We’ve come a long ways from the one room school house where the older kids helped teach the younger kids and thereby gained a sense of community responsibility, eh?