EPILOGUE

We have learned from progress in the field of psychology that certain biases are baked into the human condition. However, the fact that we live and process information in real time, in a temporal order, is not a mistake. It affects what we end up thinking, so it is a bias in a way; yet it is not a mistake, and there is no way for human information processors to avoid it. Even so, open-mindedness pays dividends. Because each of us set out to defend children rather than to defend theories, in the course of our back-and-forth each of us ended up learning something about what serves that more or less common aim. In particular, we understand that one of society’s legitimate aspirations is to be a place of opportunity, and above all a place of opportunity for its least advantaged citizens. We also understand what this overarching aspiration leaves open. It does not determine the particular missions of more specialized institutions within society, including institutions of education. We leave that as a question for the reader, but we hope to have shed some light on how to think about it.