An incisive examination of failed utopian schemes in the classroom.
Former Assistant Secretary of Education Ravitch (The Troubled Crusade, 1983) recounts a dispiriting record of pitched debates and failed reform attempts in the American educational system over the last century.
At the turn of the 20th century, an influx of immigrants and the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy compelled a reevaluation of school standards, curriculum, and methods. Two opposing approaches arose on how to deal with the situation. Advocates of liberal education, such as Harvard’s Charles W. Eliot, proposed that all students should pursue an academic curriculum. On the other hand, the progressive education movement called for alternatives for non-college-bound students. Inspired by John Dewey, it sought to transform education into both a science and a lever for social reform. But undemanding vocational, industrial, and general programs designed by Dewey’s disciples, Ravitch contends, impaired the prospects of the poor, immigrants, and racial minority groups. An epidemic of educational fads followed—vo-tech schools, IQ testing, child-centered schools, life adjustment, open education, community schools, multiculturalism, the self-esteem movement, even “frontier thinkers” who briefly saw in the Soviet Union an antidote to the competition and striving that underlay both American capitalism and education. Only in conclusion does Ravitch acknowledge that progressive education made valuable contributions in emphasizing children’s motivations and understanding. But with impeccable scholarship and withering logic she demonstrates how, under the influence of this movement, schools lost their focus on their primary teaching mission when asked to solve more social problems than they could handle. In perhaps the greatest irony, progressive educators, claiming the mantle of scientific reasoning, pushed theories related to children’s ability to learn that could seldom be proven definitively.
An incisive examination of failed utopian schemes in the classroom.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2000
ISBN: 0-684-84417-6
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
An important manual for those brave enough to face their shortcomings.
A middle-school guidance counselor offers passionate words of wisdom regarding the profound American need for responsibility, trust and character.
In a collection of short essays, some no longer than a paragraph, Baggett makes the case that in today’s society, the importance of virtuous behavior has diminished in favor of a desire for immediate satisfaction and a tendency to shrug off accountability. A tolerance for all ideologies and a willingness to explain away questionable conduct has become the norm in our current politically correct culture, leading to a dangerous lack of common ethical values. The author argues that respect and self-discipline are the hallmarks of American democracy, and without these principles, the country will experience a moral disintegration. Character education in public schools is imperative to the development of a new generation that knows true freedom does not mean freedom from responsibility. According to Baggett, character depends not only on the nurturing of trust, but also one’s willingness and courage to look deep within to discover faults and weaknesses. Perhaps one of the more intriguing ideas in the book involves culpability; without the feeling of guilt, personal growth and the development of positive character traits may be seriously impaired. Baggett, who tends toward redundancy in his efforts to convince, fortunately makes his work accessible by including memorable stories from his work with young teenagers and presenting exercises that promote self-examination. By quoting famous figures from Albert Einstein to Pogo, the author provides inspiration to readers who wish to tackle the challenge of becoming well-rounded, respectful and powerful citizens. Despite a pledge in the introduction that his Christian beliefs will not seep through the pages, a cranky sort of conservatism–and a generous sampling of scripture–may push more liberal readers away from the book. But the author’s passion for his subject makes for a spirited call for change.
An important manual for those brave enough to face their shortcomings.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4196-9781-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
After 35 years in academia, Anderson (Senior Fellow/Hoover Institution) gives a cri de coeur about what's gone so dreadfully wrong with the American university: Academic intellectuals, he says, have ``betrayed their profession'' and, within the halls of academe, ``integrity is dead.'' Strong charges, but Anderson does nothing if not back them up with facts, figures, and plenty of common-sense observation. Part of the problem is simply in quality-control: Between 1960 and 1975, the number of those attending college ``almost tripled, an increase of some 8 million students,'' and in the rapid hiring of faculty to teach these hoards of new students, ``there has been a slow but significant decline in the average quality of academic intellectuals.'' Add to this what Anderson calls ``hubris'' (the ``unchecked intellectual arrogance'' that leads academics to believe themselves above the rules that govern other people); and add to that the transformation of universities from what were ``rather small, quiet, dignified institutions of rarefied scholarly pursuits and the teaching of a select few'' into huge and ``sophisticated megabusiness machines''—and the stage is set for deterioration and trouble. Like bound apprentices of medieval times, graduate students ``teach'' (Anderson calls it ``children teaching children'') so that professors can produce still more research for their own institutional gain—most of it ``inconsequential and trifling''—while real education lags. Academics, says Anderson, ``begin by lying to others, and end up lying to themselves.'' Empty research, padded budgets, poor teaching, tenure-protected faculty who claim academic impartiality but in fact judge politically, corporate-style image management— all of this, overseen by boards of trustees who know little about education, makes for ``a recipe for disaster, a witch's brew of incompetence, timidity, and neglect.'' There may be bones to pick here, but few will be unimpressed by a veteran insider's faithful-oppositionist view of the intellectual shambles our universities seem to have become.
Pub Date: Aug. 14, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-70915-1
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1992
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