Tinkering toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform
by NeoBookify
ISBN: 0674892836
Category:
Explore a century of public school reform in ‘Tinkering toward Utopia’. Dive into the historical shifts in education policy and practice, understanding the complexities of evolving educational landscapes. A must-read for those interested in the interplay between societal values, politics, and education.
Product Description
For over a century, Americans have translated their cultural anxieties and hopes into dramatic demands for educational reform. Although policy talk has sounded a millennial tone, the actual reforms have been gradual and incremental. Tinkering toward Utopia documents the dynamic tension between Americans’ faith in education as a panacea and the moderate pace of change in educational practices.
In this book, David Tyack and Larry Cuban explore some basic questions about the nature of educational reform. Why have Americans come to believe that schooling has regressed? Have educational reforms occurred in cycles, and if so, why? Why has it been so difficult to change the basic institutional patterns of schooling? What actually happened when reformers tried to “reinvent” schooling?
Tyack and Cuban argue that the ahistorical nature of most current reform proposals magnifies defects and understates the difficulty of changing the system. Policy talk has alternated between lamentation and overconfidence. The authors suggest that reformers today need to focus on ways to help teachers improve instruction from the inside out instead of decreeing change by remote control, and that reformers must also keep in mind the democratic purposes that guide public education.
Review
“No society has ever, at any time, tried to bring such a variety of people to so high a level of proficiency as this country has, or come as close to success as we have. American educational criticism suffers from a shocking lack of perspective, historical and cross-cultural… David Tyack and Larry Cuban…do recognize [this fact], and it’s that understanding that makes their aptly titled book so important… Surely the message Tyack and Cuban are trying to deliver is crucial: understand the political nature of school reform; involve teachers; understand how complex the process is and how much thought and patience it takes; learn from the past. When we try to use radical school reform to solve whatever public problem seems most urgent―that endless cycle of educational crisis, utopian demand and disillusionment―we fail both our schools and our society.”―Peter Schrag, The Nation
“Superb… [Tyack and Cuban] calmly put the dense tomes of the education experts in clear perspective. [They] note how Americans have always looked to the nation’s schools, with mixed results, to solve certain social, political and economic problems.”―Sara Mosle, New Republic
“This accessible examination of the reasons for and effects of such wide-ranging historic reforms as graded schools, IQ testing, school site management, and ability grouping helps to put many of today’s proposals for improving schools in sharper focus.”―Diane Manuel, San Jose Mercury-News
“The authors…are two of the brightest minds in American education. Mr. Tyack is the best education historian… Mr. Cuban…is one of the United States’ leading experts in the problems of school organization and structure… This is a bold, cobweb-clearing book that challenges many of the assumptions that Americans have about their schools. Anyone seriously interested in education reform ought to read it.”―Washington Times
“[This] is a book that should appeal to, and be read by, a wide audience: connoisseurs of millennial zeal; policy advisers; even chief inspectors of schools. Anyone, in fact, who is interested in the realities of reforming state education (known, of course, as public school education in the US) and the lessons that can be drawn from the past 100 years in America. Two insights have particular relevance. The first is that: ‘Good schools can play an important role in creating a just, prosperous and democratic society, but they should not be scapegoats and are not panaceas’… The second insight is equally important. The political will might be strong; the social conviction passionate. ‘The journey from policy talk to what occurs in schools and classrooms’, however, is ‘long, often unpredictable and complicated.’”―Chris Woodhead (Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools), New Statesman
“David Tyack and Larry Cuban have written the most important interpretation of the history of public school reform in many years. Beautifully written, succinctly presented, and brimming with wise observations and keen insights, Tinkering toward Utopia is one of those rare volumes that historians, educators, and interested laypeople can all profitably read to learn about the origins, complexities, and fate of various school reforms over the past century. The volume is slender in size but gigantic in its intellectual scope. And it is certain to stimulate debate. The topic―public school reform, in its various guises―is amorphous, without agreed-upon boundaries in the world of scholarship or in the public arena… By tackling such an important yet ill-defined subject, [it] is certain to arouse high praise and, one would hope, some controversy, given the nature of the subject. Many of the ideas in the book draw on the authors; previous research, which has been widely cited and very influential among historians of education… Tinkering toward Utopia demonstrates the value of history in understanding that most familiar of American institutions, the public school. Readers will have difficulty finding another book on the history of school reform that is so thoughtful, beautifully written, and timely. It is without peer.”―William J. Reese, American Journal of Education
“In their splendid little book Stanford University Professors David Tyack and Larry Cuban adopt a radical approach to the ongoing crisis in the American public school system: listen to the teacher, let the teacher decide. Thus is the conclusion of this succinct, but hard-hitting history of reform of public schools in the United States over the last hundred years… This book is…a revelation.”―Kevin White, American Studies
Product details
- Publisher : Harvard University Press; Revised edition (March 25, 1997)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 184 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0674892836
- ISBN-13 : 978-0674892835
- Best Sellers Rank: #542,696 in Books
- #383 in Education Reform & Policy
- #891 in Education Administration (Books)
- #939 in History of Education
