Old School Still Matters

Lessons from History to Reform Public Education in America

Brian L. Fife

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780313398094
• eBook ISBN: 9780313398100
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Educational Policy

Can public schools in America be saved? This book considers theory, current practice, and the common school ideal through a historical lens to arrive at practical suggestions for reforming contemporary public education. Despite dramatic, sweeping changes in recent decades, a strong case can be made for guiding the reformation of contemporary public education in the United States on common school ideology of the nineteenth century. The author argues that the common school remains a public institution capable of preparing America's youth to contribute to the community in a positive manner, and that education must be treated at a public good where all children—regardless of social class—have a right to a quality education. The work includes a thorough overview of Horace Mann's writings on K–12 public education that support the common school ideal—concepts that are over 150 years old, yet still highly relevant today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Horace Mann and the Common School Ideology
• 2 The Market-Based Ideology and Politics of the Conservative Right
• 3 Education and the Politics of Federalism
• 4 Education and the Politics of Consumerism and Conservatism
• 5 Education in the Early Twenty-First Century
• 6 Citizenship in a Republican Form of Government in the Twenty-First Century
• 7 Education: A Public Good Worth Defending
• 8 Blueprint for Progressive Reform
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index