Schooling in the U.S. is increasingly understood through the lenses of science and accountability. From the National Research Council's Scientific Research in Education (SRE) to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), colleges and schools have faced a marked increase (or steady reinforcement) in practices which conform to principles of scientific management and accountancy. One way to understand such a focus is to view policy and practice as having, promoting, authorizing, and being supported by particular ways of knowing. What appears to matter most in current U.S. schools is that students adopt already assumed norms for classroom interaction and provide what are already deemed correct answers to already accepted questions. In place of assumed and restrictive epistemological structures, this article argues that ecological thinking and standpoints for knowing should be primary elements in a general theory of knowledge for reconstructing schools and schooling as sites for agentic knowing. This article aims to chart a facet Lorraine Code briefly touches on in her work, childhood development and learning. It also bridges epistemology and education in order to reveal epistemological assumptions already present in school where these assumptions do not take into account the varied, contextual standpoints of students and teachers. (Contains 38 notes.)