Horace Mann's Vision of the Public Schools
Horace Mann's Vision of the Public Schools

Author: William Hayes

Publisher: R & L Education

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13:

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Horace Mann has been labeled by historians as the "father of the public schools." Just as judges and historians consult the views of the nation's Founding Fathers for guidance on contemporary issues, current educators can benefit by revisiting the original vision of Horace Mann for publicly supported schools. Such a study will not only be of interest to anyone interested in our schools, but it will also offer guidance as we consider our current educational issues. Much has changed since Horace Mann led the struggle to establish the common or public schools in the mid-19th century. Drastic changes in demographics, the emergence of teacher unions, and more recently, the standards movement, high-stakes testing, and accountability have greatly affected public schools. These factors, along with the additional powers taken on by the state and federal government have altered how schools function. The result has been the creation of a system that currently fails to offer an equal educational opportunity to all of our students. This book looks to the educational ideas of Horace Mann to offer guidance as to how this nation might preserve his original vision of a public school system that will offer a free and equal educational opportunity to all the children of this nation.

Saving Schools
Saving Schools

Author: Paul E. Peterson

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2010-03-30

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9780674050112

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In this book Peterson interprets the history of American schools by placing major educational reformers in the context of their times and relates their thinking to our own era by scrutinizing the often unanticipated consequences of their commitments and ideas. These extraordinary individuals provided the critical ideas and articulated the ideals that motivated many others to search for ways to save the schools from the limitations in which they were embedded: Horace Mann, John Dewey, Martin Luther King, Al Shanker, William Bennett, and James S. Coleman. The drive to centralize was pervasive despite repeatedly expressed reform desire to customize education. Peterson argues that education has become an increasingly labor intensive industry that must reverse direction and become more capital intensive or it will descend in quality. Fortunately, technological change is making it possible radically alter the way in which education services are delivered, providing a new chance to save our schools.

The Teacher Wars
The Teacher Wars

Author: Dana Goldstein

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2015-08-04

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0345803620

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A groundbreaking history of 175 years of American education that brings the lessons of the past to bear on the dilemmas we face today—and brilliantly illuminates the path forward for public schools. “[A] lively account." —New York Times Book Review In The Teacher Wars, a rich, lively, and unprecedented history of public school teaching, Dana Goldstein reveals that teachers have been embattled for nearly two centuries. She uncovers the surprising roots of hot button issues, from teacher tenure to charter schools, and finds that recent popular ideas to improve schools—instituting merit pay, evaluating teachers by student test scores, ranking and firing veteran teachers, and recruiting “elite” graduates to teach—are all approaches that have been tried in the past without producing widespread change.

Seeking Common Ground
Seeking Common Ground

Author: David B. Tyack

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 9780674011984

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The American republic will survive only if its citizens are educated--this was an article of faith of its founders. But seeking common civic ground in public schools has never been easy in a society where schoolchildren followed different religions, adhered to different cultural traditions, spoke many languages, and were identified as members of different "races." In this wise and enlightening book, filled with vivid characters and memorable incidents that make history but don't always make history books, David Tyack describes how each American generation grappled with the knotty task of creating political unity and social diversity. Seeking Common Ground illuminates puzzles about democracy in education and chronic conflicts that continue to make news. Americans mistrusted government, yet they entrusted the civic education of their children to public schools. American history textbooks were notoriously dull, but they were also highly controversial. Although the people liked local control of schools, educational experts called it "democracy gone to seed" and campaigned to "take the schools out of politics." Reformers argued about whether it was more democratic to teach all students the same subjects or to tailor curriculum to individuals. And what was the best way to "Americanize" immigrants, asked educators: by forced-fed assimilation or by honoring their ethnic heritages? With a broad perspective and an eye for telling detail, Tyack lets us see that debates about the civic purposes of schools are an essential part of a democratic culture, and integral to its future.