LEFT BACK

Reviewed 12/13/2009

Left Back, by Diane Ravitch

Access to this book courtesy of the
Mountain View, CA Public Library
LEFT BACK
A Century of Failed School Reforms
Diane Ravitch
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000

Rating:

5.0

High

ISBN-13 978-0-684-84417-6
ISBN-10 0-684-84417-6 555p. HC $30.00

Onward & Upward?

The closing years of the nineteenth century found America proud of its ability to educate all of its children. Common (elementary) schools abounded, and by 1890 all but 5 percent of children between ages five and thirteen spent at least a few months of each year in them. Local control was the rule, but curricula varied little across the country. Children were taught the basics: reading, writing, speaking, spelling, penmanship, grammar, arithmetic, patriotism, and a clear moral code. Discipline was strict, when necessary enforced by corporal punishment. There was positive reinforcement as well; competitions like spelling bees were often community events. There were state and federal education agencies, but they were small and served mainly as information clearinghouses.

"This was the American dream, the promise of the public school to open wide the doors of opportunity to all who were willing to learn and study. The schools would work their democratic magic by disseminating knowledge to all who sought it."

– Page 20

However, opportunities for higher education were rare. Less than 5 percent of adolescents went on to high school, and fewer still entered college. Private academies provided most of the secondary education, teaching the classical curriculum of Latin, Greek, and mathematics, as well as history and science and practical skills like surveying and bookkeeping. As the country began to turn from agriculture to industry, public high schools appeared in cities. These too were sources of pride for their communities. But unlike primary education, they were opposed by a substantial faction of the populace: critics called them elitist and unnecessary; others resented the amount of public money spent on them. Also, these institutions varied widely in quality. So began the pattern we see today of constant disputes over the performance of our educational system, and endless, often mutually contradictory measures intended to reform it.

This unbroken string of reform movements represents a battle for the soul of American education — a battle between the traditionalists and the utilitarians (my terms). The traditionalists favored a liberal education for all; the utilitarians wanted to reserve the so-called academic subjects for a college-bound elite.

The aim of this book is to trace the origins of America's seemingly permanent debate about school standards, curricula, and methods. In particular, it recounts the story of unrelenting attacks on the academic mission of the schools. As enrollments in school increased in the early twentieth century, there was a decided split between those who believed that a liberal education (that is, an academic curriculum) should be given to all students and those who wanted such studies taught only to the college-bound elite. The latter group, based primarily in the schools of education, identified itself with the new progressive education movement and dominated the education profession in its formative years.

Thinking they could bridge the gap between school and society and make the schools socially useful, pedagogical theorists sought alternatives to the academic curriculum for non-college-bound students. Curricular differentiation meant an academic education for some, a nonacademic education for others; this approach affected those children—mainly the poor, immigrants, and racial minorities—who were pushed into undemanding vocational, industrial, or general programs by bureaucrats and guidance counselors who thought they were incapable of learning much more. Such policies, packaged in rhetoric about democracy and "meeting the needs of the individual child," encouraged racial and social stratification in American schools. This book will argue that this stratification not only was profoundly undemocratic but was harmful, both to the children and to American society.

– Pages 14-15

Ms. Ravitch's book amounts to a descriptive catalog of all the fads and fallacies that waylaid educational progress across more than a century of American history. The views of the various schools of thought are detailed, often with quotations from their leading proponents: a varied but often remarkably persistent bunch. The book is admirably free from errors; it exemplifies its author's propensity for thorough scholarship and her deep involvement in the field of education. If it has any significant defect, it is that presenting the complex history of American education during that turbulent century is impossible in a single volume. Ms. Ravitch's effort, as good as it is, therefore feels sketchy at places, even while its abundance of information makes it hard going. But I feel everyone should read at least some portion of it, probably the part concerning more recent history (Chapters 9-11). However, only those concerned with education on a daily basis2 will find perusing the entire text worthwhile, and I judge it a keeper only for professional educators or historians.

1 If asked what they would do about this unbroken string of failed reforms, such people would invariably declare, "We will reform it!"
2 This does not rule out parents of school-age children, in my view, even if they are not themselves school teachers or administrators.
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