This article examines the ways in which the complex and at times contradictory project of "conservative modernization" has altered the terrain of education. It extends the arguments I make in "Educating the "Right" Way" (2006) about understanding the "right", about the possibilities of interrupting the right in education, and about our roles in assisting in the building of workable alternatives. It proposes a number of tasks of the critical scholar/activist in education. The aim is to contribute to an ongoing set of crucial debates about the means and ends of our educational institutions, about their connections to larger institutions and power relations, and what our responses to these relations should be.