Sheila Curran Bernard

Esteemed historians of education David Tyack, Carl Kaestle, Diane Ravitch, James Anderson, and Larry Cuban journey through history and across the nation to recapture the idealism of our education pioneers, Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann. We learn how, in the first quarter of the twentieth century, massive immigration, child labor laws, and the explosive growth of cities fueled school attendance and transformed public education, and how in the 1950s public schools became a major show more battleground in the fight for equality for minorities and women. The debate rages on: Do today's reforms challenge our forebears' notion of a common school for all Americans? Or are they our only recourse today? show less

This is an excellent book that I had as a textbook for a college course about education. The book follows a PBS special and gives the history behind education (in general.) The text is easy to follow and the pictures are appropriate. The book really tells the "story" of education (rather than being bland and just giving facts.)

The book would have been better with just the facts and not the author's political attacks. It's his book right? But if I had known, I probably wouldn't have read it.
The history of the public school is interesting, but as soon as the state(s) made it mandatory and took the rights away from the parents it was never "right" in any form.
The book offers a lot of what happened, what didn't work, no why and toward the end it talked about schools trying new alternatives to teaching, but again, show more the political opinion in the book is skewed and offering a $25k voucher for every kid isn't the answer.
The public schools are already too concerned about the funding and not putting the students as the top priority.
Isn't that what a school should be about? The students? show less

90 minutes. Watch online at http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/watch/
From Amazon.com -- Slavery By Another Name challenges one of Americas most cherished assumptions the belief that slavery in the US ended with Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation by telling the harrowing story of how in the South, a new system of involuntary servitude took its place with shocking force.