Blackboard: A Personal History of the Classroom

by Lewis Buzbee,
The San Francisco Chronicle, August 20, 2014

"Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be," Peter DeVries once quipped. But, as Lewis Buzbee, a writer of children’s books who teaches at the University of San Francisco, demonstrates, it can serve a useful purpose. Looking back at his experiences from kindergarten to college, Buzbee reminds us that public schooling, though imperfect, remains essential — and that "focusing on what happens inside the classroom...is the answer to improving our schools."