Do ‘sputnik moments’ spur educational reform? A rhetoric scholar weighs in

The quest for space dominance has long sparked discussions about the quality of American education. Adastra/The Image Bank via Getty ImagesEver since the USSR surprised the United States with the Oct. 4, 1957, launch of the world’s first artificial satellite – Sputnik 1 – U.S. politicians and other public figures have used the term “sputnik moment” to describe times of crisis, where some sort of action is urgently needed in the realm of education. From the publication of the landmark A Nation at