Going Public: Schooling for a Diverse Democracy [Hardcover]

Judith Renyi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1994

Most Americans agree that the public school system in this country does not function well, yet while heated debates on what children should be taught in schools and who decides that curricula rage on, most of the arguments are being made in a historical vacuum. Tracing the history of American public schools from the beginnings 150 years ago, Going Public is the first attempt to show why and how an inadequate education system developed in our schools and to provide suggestions for how and what to change.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Surveying the history of American public education and the current disputes over the curriculum, Renyi offers sensible advice to reformers. Director of Collaboratives for Humanities and Arts Teaching in Philadelphia, she suggests that many educators downplay class issues, pointing out that we are attempting to "educate a social class that has never in history been educated before." She criticizes policies that ignore bilingualism and relegate the teaching of foreign languages to the teen years. Wading into the battle over multiculturalism, Renyi takes a middle road, finding fault with the self-aggrandizement of both traditional assimilationists and their opponents. She suggests that effective schooling will acknowledge the multiple stories that make up our history. Her exhortation to "trust the children" and the collective decisions of their community implies a much broader civic involvement in education than currently exists.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Yet another call to retool the American classroom, but this time preceded by a thoughtful review of the historical forces at work in the schools. Philadelphia-based R‚nyi is the director of CHART (Collaboratives for Humanities and Arts Teaching). When public schooling took hold in the US a little more than 150 years ago, the immigrant poor were not expected to finish the six or eight years of education available. It was assumed they would quickly drop out and go to work. According to the author, when education through high school became compulsory--generally after WW II--it ignited confusion and controversies that continue today. R‚nyi explores many of those issues, ranging from the Protestant religious tradition that helped to mold public schools through the dilution of the curriculum and the ``bland pudding'' of present-day textbooks to the attention-getting squabbles over bilingual education and multiculturalism at every level of education. Her careful examination of the radical changes in types of immigrants and patterns of socialization shows that earlier waves of immigrants were not only more closely attuned to the German/British style of education but were not expected to benefit fully from public education until the second or third generation. R‚nyi finds that new immigrants--and African-Americans--bring to schools a determined ethnicity that is unwilling to blend into the mythic melting pot. The argument over multicultural vs. traditional education is, the author says, ``...class warfare disguised as ideology.'' Nevertheless, she holds that a broad umbrella of traditional values--liberty and justice among them--can encompass a multitude of cultural reference points, teaching styles, and resources without relinquishing rigorous standards. A sometimes moving, sometimes illuminating, but often unfocused commentary--one that wants to de-emphasize ideology and that applauds the skilled, imaginative teacher tuned into the potential of curious children, whatever their ethnic backgrounds. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565840836
• ISBN-13: 978-1565840836
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,358,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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