Thinking About Our Kids [Hardcover]

Harold Howe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 1993

Challenges the usefulness and validity of widely admired icons of school reforms, arguing for a new approach to financing schools, for more attention to changing classroom routines, and for an emphasis on understanding America's diverse culture.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

"Our failure to respond to the cities' call for help creates a time bomb waiting to destroy civility in urban America," claims Howe, a former education commissioner during Lyndon Johnson's presidency. He challenges the leading government-sponsored studies of school reform (e.g., the National Commission on Excellence in Education's A Nation at Risk and the American Association of School Administrators's America 2000 ) and depicts the education policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations as narrow and unrealistic. The underlying causes for the failure of U.S. schools, contends Howe, are racism, poverty, and society's neglect of children. Like Jonathan Kozol in Savage Inequalities ( LJ 9/15/91), he cites some glaring differences in school funding. Howe advocates a program to improve coordination among all government agencies that deal with children, families, and schools, together with a European model of family and child support. An important addition to education and social science collections; for a diametrically opposed viewpoint, see Myron Lieberman's Public Education: An Autopsy ( LJ 7/93).
- Arla Lindgren, St. John's Univ., New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1st Printing edition (August 30, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029152941
• ISBN-13: 978-0029152942
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,536,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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