1. There have been experiments with undisciplined learning environments like that of Wheaton School. What are they? Have any been successes? How would you define a school's success?

2. What should a high school provide its students? What would be your ideal high school? What would it do?

How would students experience it?

3. Nifkin attends high school in the mid-to-late 1950s. What was the fuss about communism in America's schools in those days? What sort of threat was there?

4. What was a beatnik? Were beatniks like the ones described in The Education of Robert Nifkin?

5. What are the libraries, public and university, of Chicago? What would they offer Nifkin?

6. Compare The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler to The Education of Robert Nifkin. What do they have in common? How do they differ? What do the differences tell us about what...