Epilogue and Prologue

Abstract

If the authors of these lyrics are correct, then this chapter and the ageless efforts of enchanters, financial advisors, fortune tellers, magicians, oracles, witch doctors, and warlocks have all been exercises in futility. More importantly, the implications of such a shoulder-shrug attitude are enormous. Such a position runs counter to past and present views of education in the United States, which included the firm belief that what takes place in the future will be determined in part by the nature and the quality of what transpires in schools. There is probably general agreement that a goal, if not the goal, of formal education is to assist students in coming to understand themselves and the society in which they live and, thereby, increase the possibility that they can play a productive and satisfying part in society’s—and their—future. Such understanding will not cause us to know the future, but should provide the base for reasoned thoughts about, and shaping of, what is to come.

When I was just a little girl

I asked my mother, “what will I be?”

“Will I be pretty?

Will I be rich?”

Here’s what she said to me:

“Que sera, sera!

Whatever will be will be.

The future’s not ours to see.

Que sera, sera.”*