In April, the President's National Commission on Excellence in Education released its report, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, which portrayed the educational foundations of American society as “being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.” According to the commission, “we have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.” As one of the commissioners has admitted, these apocalyptic words were intended tO grab the fickle attention of headline writers, and through them the American people, who are deemed unable to assimilate a serious message that lasts more than 30 seconds. (Although one might note that attention easily given is easily withdrawn.)