Segment from School Days

Hometown Hero

The Backstory hosts speak with the former chairperson of the Charlottesville City School Board, Alicia Lugo (who died earlier this year), about her experiences attending Charlottesville’s all-black high school in the 1960s.

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

Space Odyssey

The hosts discuss how the Space Race with the USSR increased pressure on the United States to improve its public education system, and take a look at how the idea of educating the masses developed in this country.

00:07:31

Hometown Hero

The Backstory hosts speak with the former chairperson of the Charlottesville City School Board, Alicia Lugo (who died earlier this year), about her experiences attending Charlottesville’s all-black high school in the 1960s.

00:08:14

Read All Over

Brian talks with historian and journalist Jonathan Zimmerman about Americans’ romance with the image of the little red schoolhouse, and Peter, Ed, and Brian then reflect on this idea as it relates to different geographic sections of the country.

00:08:00

Listener Call 1

Peter, Ed, and Brian take a call from a listener.

00:02:58

Listener Call 2

Peter, Ed, Brian take another listener call.

00:03:28

Little Red Schoolhouse

Education historian John Zimmerman tells 20th Century Guy Brian Balogh why Americans romanticize the one-room schoolhouse, and what they were really like.

00:09:29