"A challenge to narrow, profit-driven conceptions of school success and an argument for protecting public education to ensure that all students become competent citizens in a vibrant democracy MacArthur award-winning educator, reformer, and author Deborah Meier draws on her fifty-plus years of experience in education to argue that the purpose of universal education is to provide young people with an "apprenticeship for citizenship in a democracy." Through an intergenerational exchange with her former colleague and fellow educator Emily Gasoi, the coauthors share their experiences working in democratically governed schools and analyze the last several decades of education reform. Reflecting on the trajectory of education and social policies that are leading our country further from rule "of, for, and by the people," the authors apply their extensive knowledge and years of research to address the question of how public education must change in order to counter the erosion of democratic spirit and practice in schools and in the nation as a whole"--

Product Description Nathan Glazer and Reed Ueda here examine six current and representative American history textbooks. They commend the authors for seeking to undermine complacency and to foster understanding and respect toward all ethnic groups. But they find a tendency to oversimplify U.S. ethnic history by making it a story of a great exploiter and a host of victims. The old myths of racism are now replaced by new myths proclaiming the superior moral qualities of minorities. About the Author Nathan Glazer is a professor of education and sociology at Harvard and the co-author with Daniel P. Moynihan of "Beyond the Melting Pot." Reed Ueda is an assistant professor of history at Tufts University.