Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Thursday, October 27 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Or fastest delivery Tuesday, October 25. Order within 3 hrs 4 mins

In Stock.

As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

[{"displayPrice":"$15.95","priceAmount":15.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"6H4%2BpKpOyzR7w3HJ4EC0zay4kE9RLg3Z4IRXnlGmnjdz4TpSLx4TuUoV83TqwCG3qNGU8Hc5TiKRHNJi5iLh%2FVDLsSB%2BLzGFuOs0UMCJ8BrDtTOetml%2Bwy83tUZScgRvKZ1c0gYdXM4%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$7.32","priceAmount":7.32,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"32","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"MzdqfvmOlWEg4%2FlJRS11y4m4kMvU65Ffm3LYg7238OekPChRgfugcKzNSY6XzTo8mH9vcA24LwlZjte2w3yYIaf%2BslW1Qn0oyVTl40CXBb%2FO5SHDvHfsQGwU0M4FREAF0BWn3mrZMbJnxC49cVq3gjMWVybvFuBPNGDPToRel%2F4bsUfOKz6ksfMgEgAGZVC%2F","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$15.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Return policy: Returnable until Jan 31, 2023

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Thursday, October 27 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Or fastest delivery Tuesday, October 25. Order within 3 hrs 4 mins

Select delivery location

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by Jenson Books Inc

Fulfilled by Amazon

Share

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$11.16
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Bestsellone

Added

Not added

$16.00
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Sold by: Santa Monica WHOLESALE

Added

Not added

$11.71
+ $4.58 shipping

Sold by: UPICK MARKETING LLC

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Follow the Author

Denise Clark Pope

Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students Paperback – January 11, 2003

by Denise Clark Pope (Author)

96 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$10.49

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$32.50

$32.08

$3.95

Paperback

"Please retry"

$15.95

$11.16

$1.45

Enhance your purchase

This book offers a revealing—and troubling—view of today’s high school students and the ways they pursue high grades and success. Veteran teacher Denise Pope follows five highly regarded students through a school year and discovers that these young people believe getting ahead requires manipulating the system, scheming, lying, and cheating. On the one hand, they work hard in school, participate in extracurricular activities, serve their communities, earn awards and honors, and appear to uphold school values. But on the other hand, they feel that in order to get ahead they must compromise their values. In short, they “do school”—that is, they are not really engaged with learning nor can they commit to such values as integrity and community.

The words and actions of these five students—two boys and three girls from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds—underscore the frustrations of being caught in a “grade trap” that pins future success to high grades and test scores. Their stories raise critical questions that are too important for parents, educators, and community leaders to ignore. Are schools cultivating an environment that promotes intellectual curiosity, cooperation, and integrity? Or are they fostering anxiety, deception, and hostility? Do today’s schools inadvertently impede the very values they claim to embrace? Is the “success” that current assessment practices measure the kind of success we want for our children?

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Yale University Press
Publication date

January 11, 2003
Dimensions

5.75 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

0300098332
ISBN-13

978-0300098334
See all details

Frequently bought together

+
+

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

by Denise Clark Pope Paperback
$15.95
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Get it as soon as Thursday, Oct 27
by Jeanne Ormrod Paperback
$53.32
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Get it as soon as Thursday, Oct 27
by Jeanne Ormrod Paperback
$74.66
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Get it as soon as Thursday, Oct 27

Jeanne Ormrod
99
Paperback
26 offers from $34.55
Jeanne Ormrod
183
Paperback
26 offers from $50.00
Denise Pope
26
Paperback
84 offers from $1.96
5
Paperback
9 offers from $56.99
D. McGuire J. E. Ormrod
3
Paperback
9 offers from $77.06
William Deresiewicz
689
Paperback
139 offers from $2.07

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A revealing look at the quandaries of today’s high school students. . . . An essential purchase for high school, college, and university libraries and one strongly recommended for public libraries where interest in education is strong."—Library Journal

"A revealing look at the quandaries of today's high school students . . . for . . . libraries where interest in education is strong."—Library Journal

"A scholarly study presented with great clarity and enlivened by vignettes of student life, this work provides a fresh perspective on the state of American education, and yet another reason to press for systematic reform."—Publishers Weekly

"[An] eye-opening look at the underpinnings of public education."—Stephanie Zvirin, Booklist

"This work will interest specialists in anthropology of education, curriculum and instruction, secondary education, and educational leadership, as well as secondary school teachers, counselors, principals, and parents. Readers interested in qualitative and naturalistic research on young people will find a useful list of references and a well-constructed, concise, lucid, and credible write-up."—Choice

". . . [W]ill interest specialists in . . . education . . . counselors, principals, and parents . . . qualitative and naturalistic . . . a well-constructed, concise, lucid . . . credible write-up."—Choice

"A penetrating and troubling look at students in an American high school. . . . Pope allows her students to speak for themselves and their words are chilling, but they ring true to anyone familiar with the Bay Area high school scene."—Jill Wolfson, San Jose Mercury News

"A penetrating . . . troubling look at . . . an American high school . . . students speak for themselves . . . their words are chilling, but . . . ring true. . ."—Jill Wolfson, San Jose Mercury News

Named asa 2001 Notable Book in Education by the American School Board Journal

"Doing School isa loud wake-up call about the disconnect between what our best high schools and colleges say they are all about and the pressure they put on students. The book raises disturbing questions about the kind of ‘high standards’ we are pushing for in our schools. It should inform any discussion of what it means to be an educated person in the 21st century."—Edward B. Fiske, Editor, The Fiske Guide to Colleges, former Education Editor of the New York Times

"Doing School givesus a penetrating view of how students cope with the pressures of schooling. Just how they cope should concern all who want from education substantially more than the superficial accommodation that even high achieving students display. Pope’s book should be read by policymakers at all levels of education."—Elliot W. Eisner, Lee Jacks Professor of Education and Professor of Art, Stanford University

"Pope, a former English teacher, writes like a dream. If I were a middle or high school teacher or administrator, I’d use this as a text with my students to prompt an exploration of life at school and with colleagues to talk about creating a different kind of school culture. I’d send it home for parents to read. I know this book will not only shake up feelings of complacency, but will also help us move toward creating schools which do much better by our kids’ hearts and minds."—Kathy Simon, Horace: The Journal of the Coalition of Essential Schools

"In a book about a high school’s best and brightest students, Denise Pope has captured the texture of their harried daily lives. These academically successful students describe a boot camp for college filled with anxiety, physical exhaustion, cheating, and a disregard for learning. They have mastered the game of ‘doing school’ and pay a steep price for their success. Reformers dead set on making all students academically successful need to hear these students’ voices."—Larry Cuban, Professor of Education at Stanford University

"Many of my students remarked that Doing School reflectedtheir own secondary school experience, and that reading it forced them to consider that experience in light of their preparation to teach. Students also commented that they sat down to read the first chapter, and simply read the entire book in one sitting—it was that compelling and that well written."—Charles Dorn, Faculty Member, Santa Clara University

From the Publisher

Named by American School Board Journal as a Notable Book in Education

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; unknown edition (January 11, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300098332
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300098334
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #408,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #302 in College & University Student Life (Books)
- #19,244 in Social Sciences (Books)

Customer Reviews:
96 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Denise Clark Pope

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

5 star		68%
4 star		19%
3 star		7%
2 star		5%
1 star		1%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Patrick J Schrappen

Timely, but missing social media implications

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

The book was researched and written in the late '90's but still holds true for how high school students approach school, their studies and interact with teachers. Most of my students are more interested in their grades than they are in actually learning something. I also see the stress/anxiety that they hold, everyday, and it never gets better as we (teachers) increasingly add more pressure by telling students that only Honors classes and AP classes are worth their attention.
The only problem I have with the book is because it was researched 20 years ago, there is no mention of the influence of the internet and most recently the influence of social media on the lives of these adolescents. I would love to see someone repeat this study to see how the influx of computers and social media has impacted the approach, stress, and expectations of high school students.
I definitely think that this is a must read for new teachers and for parents. Schools often are only responding to the pressure that parents are putting on us to improve the college opportunities of their (parents) children.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michael A. Heald

A Good Book for Pesonal Reflection

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 21, 2007

Verified Purchase

Ms. Pope superbly examines the question - can the pursuit of high grades to lead to unhealthy consequences in a child's mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health? As a parent (and I think most parents would agree), the answer is yes. This book encourages parents to reflect on whether their children are involved with such an unbalanced lifestyle, and most importantly, whether I as a parent am encouraging (usually unwittingly!) such an unbalanced lifestyle.

Ms. Pope falls short when she tries to generalize her conclusions about the five students she followed over the course of a school year to an indictment of the state of education in that particular high school (and ultimately, the state of education in America as a whole). These students suffered from multiple problems such as probable sleep deprivation, to possible mental illness and personality disorder, to family dysfunction. Just to examine whether the high school itself was a prime culprit in fostering an unhealthy emphasis on grades, Ms. Pope would have needed a much larger study including psychiatric, social work, and medical evaluation of the students, but also the families, teachers, administration, and even of the characteristics of the surrounding community.

Even then, generalizing her conclusions to other school districts would have been impossible, since the problems facing any given school system are unique. For example, poverty, racism, and drugs didn't seem to be prominent problems for the students in her study, but I am sure teachers and administrators in other districts might say that such problems are of paramount importance to them.

As a result, as a scientific investigation of the state of education in the high school Ms Pope studied (and in America as a whole), Ms. Pope's book is useless.

Forget the inflammatory title. I highly recommend this book as it was written - a call for parents to reflect on the lives of their children.

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

Book Worm

Worthwhile Reading

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 10, 2007

Verified Purchase

While it has been a year or so since I've read this book, during this time I have recommended this book to several parents with high school aged children. As a student who attends a supposedly "elite" university, I often wondered where, or from whom, my classmates developed their misplaced sense of ethics when it comes to achieving academic success....and then I began tutoring students in the very competitive high schools that surround this university. I witnessed students who were more interested in getting A's in all of their classes - by whatever means necessary - than in actually understanding the material at hand. As a result much of their time was spent devising ways in which to "work the system", which, it seems, are good skills to acquire if one wishes to attend the top universities. God forbid that any of these students should attend a "second tier" university, for their parents would have to hide their faces in shame when among their peers.

It no longer surprises me when the students around me resort to the methods outlined in Ms. Pope's book. True, not all of these methods are "technically" prohibited and (fortunately) not all students approach their studies in this way, but enough of them do that it is time to reevaluate just what is most important when approaching our children's education. Ms. Pope's book attempts to redirect this focus so that American students do not continue to fall further behind the rest of the world.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

H Rose

Enlightening for adults without exposure to high school life since the 1980's

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 31, 2015

Verified Purchase

If you have been in high school or have had a student in high school since the 1990's and the move to "No Child Left Behind" high stakes testing, then this information will reinforce what you have already seen, first hand.

If you have not been exposed, then please read this to understand, first hand, the damage that "No Child Left Behind" has done to our educational system. The legacy of this is rampant cheating in high school by top students and loss of interest in learning by most.

Helpful

EDNavigators

An Honest Look At the Lives of High School Students in America

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 26, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book provides valuable insight into the feelings and actions of high school students. It is an important read for parents, teachers and anyone who has interest in what it is truly like to "do school" today. High school is not the same as it was decades ago. Students are facing new and different challenges.

I appreciate the honesty of the author and the students in writing this. As adults, it is important that we understand teen struggles and support them. These teens are our future leaders.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Artemis12

An interesting read.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 25, 2011

Verified Purchase

This book was honestly one of the most interesting I've read this year. It's a must for students, parents and educators. Some of the real stories were really shocking, and it made me realize some things about my student life is well, and it motivated me to "do school" in a different way. So for anybody who is involved with school, one way or another PLEASE: read this book.

One person found this helpful

Helpful