Schools Abroad: Back to the Books in China

In the final reckoning of the price paid for Mao's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the damage done to China's educational system may prove the biggest—and longest-lasting—backward leap of all. Closing the schools for a year—so that 110 million students could be freed to "exchange revolutionary experiences," "smash" revisionist leaders and "struggle violently against" teachers suspected of harboring anti-Mao views—will mean the loss of two years of education before the school system is put back in running order. But this may be the least of China's troubles. For behind the scenes, Mao's...