When we look back over the decade since the turning of the millennium, we can see a cultural landscape littered with dashed hopes and thwarted dreams, where our sky’s-the-limit enthusiasms got weighed down by abject loss delivered to us through the agencies of terrorism, war, greed, and ignorance. It is enough to make one long for the good old days, unless of course you happen to be a student of history and know that every era has been wracked by its own set of misfortunes. Even for the most astute students, the good old days were not all that good. If you were educated in the 50s or 60s or 70s, a visit to almost any classroom in Newtown today will be an eye-opener. We have come a very long way in the business of engaging young minds in the pursuit of knowledge.

Yet this difficult world requires constant advances in our abilities and our knowledge, and notwithstanding the great strides we have made in education, there is evidence that we are not keeping up. Various educational reform initiatives at both the federal and state level have raised alarms about the country’s education system. Twenty-five years ago, the United States was first among industrialized nations in the share of its population holding both high school diplomas and college degrees. By 2005, the rankings in those categories had dropped to ninth and seventh, respectively. A 2006 forecast prepared by economists at the Universities of Connecticut and Massachusetts predicted that the two states — the most developed in New England — would suffer the largest losses in the number of four-year college degree recipients in the region by the year 2020. The implications for the economy and the quality of life in southern New England are clear.

Whatever advances we have made in our school systems in the past has to continue apace. But making advances in a time of economic retrenchment will require new ideas, a sense of common purpose, and money — all of which appear to be in short supply. A statewide council composed of educators, business leaders, and local officials vowed on Monday this week to forge stronger continuity and cooperation through the entire public school system, from preschool to graduate programs. We will be interested to see how this “P-20 Council” plans to deliver on its pledge, but our main focus will remain where every initiative meets its true test: the local classrooms.

Not all great ideas drift down to us from on high. This week we are taking a look at education through the eyes of five people who are different in many respects, including their age, personal experience, and vocation. They have one thing in common: an interest in creating better schools. Despite their differences, they agree that the best education is a complex mix of environment, relationships, and process. Their collective insights — from the eighth grader’s appreciation of security to the retired engineer’s lament for the loss of discipline — suggest some areas of consensus across the broad range of their perspectives on issues including standardized testing, teacher tenure, and the essential partnership of educators, students, and families. We urge you to read their story, which starts on this page.

Too many education reform initiatives have lived and died in meeting rooms in Hartford and Washington, D.C. Perhaps the conversation needs to start locally. Let us start with some new ideas. Maybe in those ideas we will find common purpose. And common purpose will find its way to money. If we are lucky, we may just find some good old days in our future.