Customer Reviews

The Schoolhome: Rethinking Schools for Changing Families

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This is THE philosophy of school and society in our time. It is a great book for discussion groups involving parents, teachers, school boards, school administrators. In "School and Society" courses pre-service teachers find it an effective stimulus to their imaginations, so that they can summon the courage to be teachers who can really practice the concern for children that drew them into that profession in the first place, despite the tragic bureaucratic lockdown schooling has become. It doesn't respond to that tragic situation with facile sentimental pleas for caring, nor does it indulge the urbane fashion of sneering at caring; it explicitly acknowledges the complexity of what it might mean to act on our concern for children. As a result, I have seen almost miraculous effects on teaching as a consequence of contact with this book. Parents in my community have gathered to discuss this book, too. I have seen a principal stimulate teacher leadership for reform by reading and discussing this book with teachers. It is only a matter of time before we start to read about this book's practical interpretations in print, as such teachers and principals earn their PhD and theorize about their practical translations of THE SCHOOLHOME's vision. For this book does not offer prescriptions and platitudes, nor does it participate in the blaming game so popular in the NCLB era, nor does it drown its readers in jargon and numbers and ideological preachiness. It is a passionate invitation to think about what we as a culture are doing to and for and with our children. College-educated people will find it easily readable. It explicitly encourages various sorts of ethical sensitivities to cultural diversity, disability, gender, and ecology. It offers a rich discussion of values applied to various accounts of schooling, and shows how important those values are for educators to think about, whether they are parents or schoolpeople. Among those values is the US Constitution's aim "to ensure domestic tranqillity." Some of its critics do not seem actually to have READ it; this is not a book to be comprehended exclusively through its title; this is a book made for reading and rereading, for discussion and for prompts to practical experimentation and journaling. It is not a doctrine or a dogma or a cynical critique. It is a brilliant provocation to constructively critical thought & imagination concerning the education of children and adolescents. Philosophers and historians of education will find this book thought-provoking too, comparable to Jane Addams's concept of the social settlement, the Dutch concept of the folk school, and relevant to contemporary movements for "community" and "full-service" schools or for arts integration across the school curriculum. Amazon won't accept my five-star rating, not sure why, but the four stars it shows above is a lower rating than I gave this book! Even 16 years after its publication, it's the perfect gift for demoralized teachers and parents.

I read this book in 1995 and in 2001, it had a direct influence on the school that I founded, Codman Academy Charter Public School ([...]) , which is located inside a community health center. Thank you, Dr. Martin!