Customer Reviews

The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem

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One of the things I liked best about the Power of Their Ideas was the engaging writing. Meier writes as if whe is conversing with you. The development of theory backed with her personal experience and anecdotes from her schools make her ideas come alive. With relatively short chapters, each dealing with a major issue confronting public education today, and journal entries interspersed, the book is very accessible.

Easy enjoyable reading with powerful ideas. Meier gets one to think, as she must do for those who attend her schools. She engages you in her journey, without being afraid to show you where she has run into difficulties and where she sees no simple answers.

All in all this is a wonderful book for anyone who is interested in exploring what is happening and could happen with public eduction in this country.

This book represents the ideas generated by one woman's persistence in running progressive and successful schools. Deborah Meier, founder of the Central Park East schools in Harlem, is no newcomer to education. In this book, she finally puts on paper what she has spent so many of the past years practicing.

There is surprisingly little in this book which is new, innovative, or shocking. Indeed, much of what Meier has to say is mere common sense (like small schools and more proportionate teacher/student ratios work better). However,Meier puts common-sense notions in a way that grounds them in analogy and reality; one can't help but laugh on one page and growl on the next. Further, it is important to remember how much earlier Meier herself recognized and implemented these ideas than have other educators: while many of the ideas that she suggests are accepted, commonplace, and may be in vogue today, they were revolutionary when she began at Central Park East. The consequence of her early action is that the reader is privy to the RESULTS of many of the experimental ideas that other schools are just now begining to implement.

Furthermore, Meier specifically choses certain points that are currently in contention, and omits others; there is a definite pattern to her theory. You won't find mention of "gifted and talented" programs or even the necessity of monetary resources here (two ideas that are consistently part of heated debates regarding education reform); neither of these, Meier suggests through their omission, matter as much as the ideas she offers up, especially her "five habits of mind".

And as the statistics from her schools would show, she is on to something. Indeed, the only thing keeping this book from being rated a "10" is its lack of hard facts regarding her actual success. Meier is clearly writing theory, and avoids dry facts which, I think, would have added a degree of credibility to the book for those who don't know how credible an educator Meier is.

As an educator who has worked at Meier's newest Boston school, let me set those folks at ease: this stuff works.

I am a high school teacher who works in a big school that is transitioning into small schools this fall, so I read Deborah Meier's book with special interest. She is one of the gurus of the movement, and sure enough, she makes a powerful case for the advantages that small schools pose relative to the type of big, impersonal high school I've taught in for the past eight years. Aside from giving me further confidence that the small schools transition is the right move for our district, I can't say I got much practical information out of this book. Meier's basic message is that if you make schools small and give teachers the power to run them democratically, good things will come of it. The schools she has organized certainly seem to each have a track record of success, so one wants to have faith that this approach will work elsewhere.

What I was hoping for in the book, however, was more of a "how-to" for the classroom teacher. How do I convince kids that I care about them and create a sense of community in my small school? How do I deal effectively with student absenteeism, apathy, lack of parental support, violence in the home and neighborhoods, refusal to do homework, etc. etc. etc.? Meier seems to say that given the chance to really know my students and address these problems with my small-school colleagues, I'll be able to come up with the answers myself. I hope she's right, but I wish she'd given me a lot more examples of how she and her fellow teachers confronted and overcame these types of problems.

Overall, The Power of Their Ideas is a worthwhile book that tackles some big issues in education. Meier has some sacred cows to kick (e.g. standardized testing, pundits who long for the mythical "good old days" of education, and overly ambitious graduation requirements), and she does it convincingly and with good humor. Most importantly, she comes back again and again to the vital role of public education in democracy. Public school reform must not come at the cost of their being truly public institutions (as would happen under vouchers, charter schools, and corporate governance of schools), or we will lose one of the most powerful forces for democracy we have as a nation.

Meier is a progressive moderate; this text is a nice addition to an understanding of how Free School premises can be integrated into a public h.s.

Of all the books assigned in my Grad classes. I thought this one was the most relevant, compassionate, and humorous.

The Power of Their Ideas, by Deborah Meier. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995

Long before the current school restructuring movement was born, Deborah Meier's heart and soul were already in it. She came out of the 1960s as a "movement" person who began teaching accidentally, without any grand plan. But in 1974, Meier and a small group of colleagues founded Central Park East Elementary School in one wing of P.S. 171 in East Harlem, as a school that was not just "child-centered, but community-centered as well."

Unlike the wave of small alternative schools that had sprung up during that turbulent period, Central Park East was born as a school inside, not outside, the system. Under the protection of a new risk-taking district superintendent, Anthony Alvarado, Meier and her band of determined educators won the right to engage in a most radical practice--good teaching. They wanted, says Meier, "to provide at public expense for the least advantaged what the most advantaged bought privately for their own children."

The Power of Their Ideas refers to the ideas of those who were at the center of this small- schools movement: the teachers, parents, and students who created what Alternative Schools Director Sy Fliegel would later call, in the title of his book, Miracle in East Harlem. These ideas led to the success of four small schools of choice, working under all the constraints of the public school system. Meier, a radical critic of the system and at the same time a staunch defender of public education, wanted no part of vouchers or privatization. Her philosophy emerges from the telling of her story. Good teaching, she insists, is fostered by "small schools, schools of choice, school autonomy over the critical dimensions of teaching and learning, lots of time for building relationships...."

In journal notes, she finds meaning for small schools in the death of Carmela, one of her students:

The school's steady attention to Carmela and her family as she lay dying for nearly a year can't happen in a school five times our size. Yet death surrounds our kids. If death doesn't count, does life?
While the population of Central Park East still reflects a cross section of New York City, with the majority coming from low-income, African-American and Latino families, nearly all of its students graduate, go on to college, and do well there. Is this really a "miracle"? If all children can learn, why should Central Park East be equated with Lourdes?

It shouldn't. Central Park East and the 50 or so New York City schools modeled on it were not handed down from heaven. As Meier tells it, they were the product of hard work done by groups of teachers coming together voluntarily around a common philosophy:

a small crew of teachers who were ready to take the risks and seize the opportunities; and a group of families either desperate enough or eager enough to give it a chance.
The Power of Their Ideas is part journal, part handbook for the next generation of caring, innovative teachers who aren't sure if or how it can be done, and part treatise on democracy and education, taking on the why's, not just the how's of schooling. "For us," says Meier, "a democratic community was the nonnegotiable purpose of good schooling."

Available from Beacon Press, 25 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108.

--Reviewed by Mike Klonsky, Small Schools Workshop

Deborah Meier writes about her experiences restructuring a school in Harlem in this book, The Power of Their Ideas. She created small schools within a large school. Her successes in doing so are compelling evidence that all students can succeed. Schools today have countless obstacles. Meier demonstrates how size should not be an obstacle. Since the release of The Power of Their Ideas, many school districts across the country are attempting to restructure schools based on Meier's experiences.

I read this book for a doctorate level course at DePaul University and a graduate level course at Teachers College, Columbia University. I would recommend this book to all education students. It is an inspiring book for everyone in the field of education.

This is a terrific book. Meier writes with the wisdom of experience and a life spent struggling for the best education for all of her students. An inspiring book, and one that deserves a close reading by all concerned with quality public education.

I am a college student majoring in education and I read this book for a class. I think that this book has a lot of great information and useful ideas, but it was hard to get into. Overall, I would say that this is a good book for education majors to read.

This book started off slow but I ended up enjoying every point that was made. I am from a small school and agree with a lot of what Deborah Meier said. She does point out things that I already know should be done with public education and leaves me to wonder how we can speed up the process of small schools. Schools really seem to be getting bigger. Who do we tell and how do we go about making schools small again?