Why School? is a little book driven by big questions. What does it mean to be educated? What is intelligence? How should we think about intelligence, education, and opportunity in an open society? Drawing on forty years of teaching and research and 'a profound understanding of the opportunities, both intellectual and economic, that come from education’ (Booklist), award-winning author Mike Rose reflects on these and other questions related to public schooling in America. He answers them in beautifully written chapters that are both rich in detail and informed by an extensive knowledge of history, the psychology of learning, and the politics of education.
This paperback edition includes three new chapters showing how cognitive science actually narrows our understanding of learning, how to increase college graduation rates, and how to value the teaching of basic skills. An updated introduction by Rose, who has been hailed as 'a superb writer and an even better storyteller’ (TLN Teachers Network), reflects on recent developments in school reform. Lauded as 'a beautifully written work of literary nonfiction’ (
The Christian Science Monitor) and called 'stunning’ by the
New Educator Journal,
Why School? offers an eloquent call for a bountiful democratic vision of the purpose of schooling.
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Mike Rose, a professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, is the author of numerous books, including
The Mind at Work,
Possible Lives, and
Back to School (The New Press). Among his many awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Grawemeyer Award in Education, and the Commonwealth Club of California Award for Literary Excellence in Nonfiction. He lives in Santa Monica.