St. Augustine's Press
Reforms come and go, yet American public schools stay much the same. Their culture is pervasive and almost invisible, as water is to a fish. Nothing much is going to change until it changes, and no one reform can unlock it. Quite the opposite: its anti-intellectual, activity-oriented bias turns reforms that sound good on the 10 pm news into more routines for the 9 am class.
For thirty-four years, from 1962 to 1996, Open Court Publishing Company sold elementary math and reading textbooks that tried to combat the culture and bring about real school reform. Stories from the company’s struggles help make this culture visible.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Beyond traditionalism and progressivism
Chapter 1. What is the problem?
Chapter 2. What should children do in school?
Chapter 3. Ahead of its time: the beginnings of Open Court reading (1962–1967)
Chapter 4. Selling reform with guarantees (1966–1973)
Chapter 5. Trying to sell a principled program (1966–1973)
Chapter 6. Gaining credibility (1968–1974)
Chapter 7. Math: forward to thinking, not back to basics (1971–1984)
Chapter 8. Working bottom-up and top-down (1975–1985)
Chapter 9. Research, resistance, renewal (1978–1985)
Chapter 10. Selling reform by disguise: the move toward the middle (1983–1989)
Chapter 11. Counterfeit reform (1985–1988)
Chapter 12. Whole language and CYS (1987–1996)
Chapter 13. Conclusion
Afterword and Index
Harold Henderson is a graduate of Carleton College and has been a staff writer at the Chicago Reader since 1985.
How the Open Court Publishing Company Fought the Culture of American Education
176 pages, 6” x 9”,
jacketed clothbound, $26.00
ISBN: 1-58731-919-5
introduction, afterword, index
world rights
publication date: May 2006