Re-Forming Schools and Cities: Placing Education on the Landscape of Planning History

Schools are among the most ubiquitous institutions shaping city and regional ecology, policy, and everyday experience. In recent decades, planning historians have come to define planning ever more broadly, focusing on a great diversity of urban activities. But the design, development, and administration of public and private schools, from the preschool to university level, have yet to be incorporated into our discipline's debates and discussions to a significant degree. This introductory article frames the articles that follow within the broader history of American education and posits a variety of opportunities and questions to explore as we incorporate the history of schools into planning history.