There is an award plaque on my office wall featuring a common education icon—an old fashioned desk. You know the one—cast iron frame with a wooden bench seat and a hinged slant top. Style has changed, ...

To a dark old countinghouse at Church and Chambers Streets in Downtown Manhattan, with old-fashioned desks, high-backed chairs, an ancient parlor stove, some 60 years ago went a Vermonter named Henry ...