Dana Goldstein

The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession- Dana Goldstein
4 stars

The subtitle of this book grabbed my interest immediately. I’ve been a frontline soldier in the public education wars. I wanted to hear what Goldstein had to say about it.

The book is a true history of American education, beginning with Chapter One, “Missionary Teachers” of the 19th century. The following chapters detail the growth of public education, the rise teacher’s unions, and the show more pendulum swing of educational methodology and practice through the 20th century to the present day. Goldstein maintains her historical perspective throughout. She connects the practice, funding, and politics of education to the political and social climate of each decade. She tracks the development of policies, their success and failures, while pointing to the way the same issues remain or resurface again and again.

Much of this history of education was naturally familiar to me. I experienced it as a child; I worked with it as an adult. I was very interested in how the growth of public education in the 19th century paralleled the growth of the suffrage movement. I find it fascinating that Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had opinions about female educators that continue to be issues today. Goldstein also pointed to differences in educational philosophies among black leaders of the restoration and the early 20th century. (Historically, there’s much, much, more to be said about minority education than Brown vs the Board of Education.) With each decade, Goldstein highlighted the most prominent voices, the largest conflicts, and the greatest successes of our educational system. It was thoroughly researched and well provided with references and footnotes. In the later chapters she included quotes from interviews with some of the soldiers on the front. She did a good job establishing an historical timeline of a huge subject, while staying reasonably objective throughout.

Overall, I think this book was mostly, although not invariably, pro-teacher. I found it validating.
Goldstein provided the larger context for the very things that caused me to leave teaching. Her last chapter, “Lessons From History for Improving Teaching Today”, has eleven practical, research based suggestions. But, do we ever really learn from history ? show less

Another reviewer used the term "even-handed" to describe Goldstein's approach to this subject. I agree wholeheartedly, and found it a welcome relief from the breathless hysterics that permeate much of the literature on this topic. I also found this to be thorough, yet accessible overview of the history of teaching in the U.S. Perfect for those with little background, but also a well-balanced overview that could be of use to those already very familiar with the topic.

If you're expecting Dana Goldstein, a fellow at both the New America Foundation and the Nation Institute, to toe the standard teachers-union line, you'll be disappointed—and equally so if you're expecting unabashed support for charter schools and union busting. What that translates to, in The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession (Doubleday, $26.95), is an even-handed, well-researched and balanced history of the evolution of American public education and the show more profession of teaching. Goldstein's greatest contribution is to provide big-picture context for those of us struggling to understand how public education in America got to this place and what, precisely, needs to be addressed to move forward.

Reviewed for the Sacramento News & Review: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/big-picture-lessons/content?oid=15041215 show less

Turns out that educational policy is such a huge many-tentacled topic, it's hard to summarize in a single tome. Much of this book had a "you had to be there" feel to it (basically, the whole history of teacher unions).

This book nevertheless felt like a thorough, fair analysis of educational policy, even if it left me feeling a little cross-eyed at times. It leaves out the other half of the puzzle, the history of pedagogy, but depressingly enough, pedagogical schools play such a small role in show more teaching policy that Goldstein's approach works fine. show less