Synopses & Reviews
In the tradition of Jonathan Kozol, this little book is driven by big questions. What does it mean to be educated? What is intelligence? How should we think about intelligence, education, and opportunity in an open society? Why is a commitment to the public sphere central to the way we answer these questions?
Drawing on forty years of teaching and research, from primary school to adult education and workplace training, award-winning author Mike Rose reflects on these and other questions related to public schooling in America. He answers them in beautifully written chapters that are both rich in detail—a first-grader conducting a science experiment, a carpenter solving a problem on the fly, a college students encounter with a story by James Joyce—and informed by a deep and powerful understanding of history, the psychology of learning, and the politics of education.
Rose decries the narrow focus of educational policy in our time: the drumbeat of test scores and economic competition. Why School? will be embraced by parents and teachers alike, and readers everywhere will be captivated by Roses eloquent call for a bountiful democratic vision of the purpose of schooling.
Review
"A beautifully written work . . . [a] moving call for a humane approach to education that accounts for the needs of every child."
Christian Science Monitor
About the Author
Mike Rose, a professor in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, is the author of
Lives on the Boundary,
The Mind at Work, and
Possible Lives. Among his many awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Grawemeyer Award in Education, and the Commonwealth Club of California Award for Literary Excellence in Nonfiction. He lives in Santa Monica.
Table of Contents
CONTENTSPreface ix
Introduction: Why School? 1
1. In Search of a Fresh Language
of Schooling 25
2. Finding Our Way: The Experience
of Education 31
3. No Child Left Behind and the Spirit
of Democratic Education 43
4. Business Goes to School 53
5. Politics and Knowledge 65
6. Reflections on Intelligence in the
Workplace and the Schoolhouse 73
7. On Values, Work, and Opportunity 89
8. Standards, Teaching, Learning 97
9. Remediation at the University 117
10. Re-mediating Remediation 127
11. Soldiers in the Classroom 139
12. A Language of Hope 145
13. Finding the Public Good Through the
Details of Classroom Life 153
Conclusion: The Journey Back and Forward 161
Acknowledgments 171
Notes 173