WHO CAN BE EDUCATED?

In answer to the question, ""Who can be educated?"" Dr. Schwebel shouts, ""Everyone!"" For proof, he cites the findings of biology, sociology, psychology, and education. To explain the failure of educators to educate, he blames the ""fixed-ability theory"" of learning--the notion that heredity more than environment is the determinant of intelligence. And for a rope to pull American elementary and secondary schools out of the quicksand they call curricula, he looks to the French psychologist Piage As an ax-job on ""fixed-ability,"" the book is indeed convincing (though it lacks quantitative evidence). As a popularization of Piaget's theories and findings on human development, the book also is useful. But as a clarion call to change in education, the book is simply too late. As the author, dean of the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University, must surely know, the notion that the educational diets of culturally deptived children can be supplemented (by Head Start and other programs) has already been widely accepted. Schwebel, who has none of the ""happy bunches"" of a Jerome Bruner, does tell us generally what is wrong with American education. But we still need to know, specifically, What to do about it.