I'm looking for a good book on American Education. (college, schools, psychology)

[803andy]

Hello,

I am looking for a good primer on American Education (K-12). One that isn't pro one way or the other, but deals with history, methods, issues, debates, current trends etc.... in a non-biased format.

Something like American Education 101 or Education for Dummies...

[DanArt]

That is an entire area of studies. I suggest going to your local college and finding a college professor who is open to some examples. They have libraries of that. You could also search your local college library search engine. You will find tons of books, articles, and thesis on the subjects

[jps-teacher]

DanArt's comment is on target.

I might recommend that rather than a book you take a gander at this website, designed for international students who've come to the U.S.:
Guide to the US Education System

See if anything there seems worth drilling down into further.

Then, perhaps, this 1999 study on the American Education System might fit your needs.

But beyond that, even the moderately comprehensive histories of the US education system miss huge swaths of it because there is sooooooooo much to cover!

I'm happy to try to direct you to:
a) Major general and/or specific histories;
b) Landmark works - either books or court cases - that provide the scaffolding upon which our current "system" is built;
c) Sub-fields and their influence on the whole.

But doing all of those? No thanks.

[psikeyhackr]

I suspect a major problem you will run into is people giving you a distorted view that reflects their biases and philosophy.

A Brief History of Education
To understand schools we must view them in historical perspective.
Posted Aug 20, 2008
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...tory-education

Are schooling and education really two different things? Is schooling simply one possible method of being educated with a high probability of just being indoctrinated.

The Mind Is Not a Vessel That Needs Filling, But Wood That Needs Igniting
The Mind Is Not a Vessel That Needs Filling, But Wood That Needs Igniting | Quote Investigator

That quote is from long before the Industrial Revolution which tended to promote the bucket that needs filling philosophy.
But cheap computers present the possibility of easily setting the world on fire.

Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/5...ch-themselves/

psik

[dcfas]

Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. Dan C. Lorte

[ylisa7]

If you want books with debates and current trends it cannot be unbiased.

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/education-reform

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/education-policy

[jackmccullough]

Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol

https://www.amazon.com/Savage-Inequa.../dp/0770435688

[ylisa7]

Originally Posted by jackmccullough

Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol

https://www.amazon.com/Savage-Inequa.../dp/0770435688

I've had that one on my to read list for awhile. Thanks for the reminder. I'll bump it up.

[Sandpointian]

Originally Posted by 803andy

Hello,

I am looking for a good primer on American Education (K-12). One that isn't pro one way or the other, but deals with history, methods, issues, debates, current trends etc.... in a non-biased format.

Something like American Education 101 or Education for Dummies...

"Swiss Schools And Ours: Why Theirs Are Better," Adm. Hyman Rickover, 1962.
"The Closing of the American Mind," Allan Bloom, 1987
"Politics, Markets, and America's Schools," Chubb & Moe, 1990.
"The Role of Government in Education" in Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman, 1962, Chap 6.
"What's Wrong with Our Schools," in Free to Choose, 1980, Milton & Rose Friedman, Chap 6.

Each is excellent. Bloom's book is extremely pretentious but still a classic.

S.

[psikeyhackr]

Originally Posted by Sandpointian

"The Role of Government in Education" in Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman, 1962, Chap 6. "What's Wrong with Our Schools," in Free to Choose, 1980, Milton & Rose Friedman, Chap 6..

I got really interested in economics after I read a book, The Screwing of the Average Man, in 1976.

Months later, in 1977, a TV series by John Kenneth Galbraith called, The Age of Uncertainty, appeared on Public Television.

Then right after that Milton Friedman came out with a series called Free to Choose.

You can watch Galbraith’s The Age of Uncertainty, which first aired on the BBC in 1997, above. Friedman’s “response” Free to Choose, broadcast on PBS in 1980, appears below.

Milton Friedman & John Kenneth Galbraith's Present Their Opposing Economic Philosophies on Two TV Series (1977-1980) | Open Culture

How could a "response" come out before the event? Oh yeah, it's the BBC! Did they not show it in the UK in 1977. That would be weird.

In 1977 John Kenneth Galbraith hosted the documentary series The Age of Uncertainty on public television; three years later Milton Friedman hosted a competing series, Free to Choose.

Age of Certainty: Galbraith, Friedman, and the Public Life of Economic Ideas

You just can't trust the Internet.

In my rarely humble opinion Galbraith totally blew Friedman away. I am not saying that I completely agree with Galbraith but that he was informative, providing the reader with stuff to think about while Friedman came across as a propagandist providing only the information supporting his side.

I do find it curious that I have never heard any economist suggest mandatory accounting for our schools though nearly everyone must deal with money and double-entry accounting is 700 years old. So it was 500 years old when Karl Marx was born. So please excuse me if I am inclined to be skeptical about anything that Friedman said about education.

Shouldn't a good National Recommended Reading List classified by age and with short explanations for inclusion of each book be very useful and relatively inexpensive? So what do we get from educators? Might it be too useful and inexpensive?

psik