SCHOOL: THE STORY OF AMERICAN PUBLIC EDUCATION 

Companion to the PBS series

Imprint:  Beacon Press

Publication date: August 2001

Price: $30.00 / illus. /hardcover; $18.00 / illus. /paperback

Edited by: Sarah Mondale and Sarah B. Patton

Foreword by Meryl Streep

Narrative by: Sheila Curran Bernard and Sarah Mondale

Based on the PBS series, SCHOOL: The Story of American Public Education, produced by Sarah Mondale and Sarah B. Patton; directed by Sarah Mondale; edited by Marian Sears Hunters; and written by Sheila Curran Bernard

From the publisher: "... this timely history of America's public schools journeys through history and across the nation. Recapturing the idealism of our education pioneers Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann, it describes the tumultuous growth of urban schools at the turn of the twentieth century, the fight for equality for minorities and women, and examines today's debates over privatization, charter schools, and vouchers. School features over 125 historic photographs and essays by esteemed historians of education David Tyack, Carl Kaestle, Diane Ravitch, James Anderson, and Larry Cuban."

Reviews

• "...if you're looking for a quick (and handsome) overview of how U.S. schools became what they are, pick up a copy of School. Based on the PBS series of the same name, the book begins with the colonial "dame schools" and continues right through charter schools and vouchers....This is the story of Thomas Jefferson, Horace Mann, Booker T. Washington, John Dewey, Thurgood Marshall, Lyndon Johnson, Deborah Meier, and Jonathan Kozol. But it's also the story of settlers building log schoolhouses, of teachers bringing Protestantism and literature to the frontier, of immigrants leading their children directly from the dock to the schoolhouse door, of parents risking their children's very lives by sending them to schools where they required the protection of the National Guard." American School Board Journal (selected as a 2001 Notable Book in Education)

•  "A direct and well-written text and the liberal use of historical photographs make School one of the few books available on the history of education in America written for the layperson." Sheryl Fowler, School Library Journal

• "…The historical tour provided by this book is a trip worth taking for the current generation of stakeholders in American education. Despite the ongoing investment of emotion and resources, it is questionable how well the average American understands how the public education system has arrived at its current state. Such an appreciation of the past might, in fact, inform us about the choices for the future." Kevin Arnold, Leadership Review

•  "[A]n exemplary, thoroughly readable account."  Publisher's Weekly