Saving Schools: From Horace Mann to Virtual Learning

By: Paul E. Peterson

Narrated by: Tim Lundeen

Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Saving Schools traces the story of the rise, decline, and potential resurrection of American public schools through the lives and ideas of six mission-driven reformers: Horace Mann, John Dewey, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Shanker, William Bennett, and James Coleman. Yet schools did not become the efficient, egalitarian, and high-quality educational institutions these reformers envisioned. Indeed, the unintended consequences of their legacies shaped today's flawed educational system, in which political control of stagnant American schools has shifted away from families and communities to larger, more centralized entities - initially to bigger districts and eventually to control by states, courts, and the federal government.

Peterson's tales help to explain how nation building, progressive education, the civil rights movement, unionization, legalization, special education, bilingual teaching, accountability, vouchers, charters, and homeschooling have, each in a different way, set the stage for a new era in American education.

Now, under the impact of rising cost, coupled with the possibilities unleashed by technological innovation, schooling may be transformed through virtual learning. The result could be a personalized, customized system of education in which families have greater choice and control over their children's education than at any time since our nation was founded.

The book is published by Harvard University Press.

©2010 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2013 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"This new book by Peterson stands out among the many excellent titles published each year on education history and reform. Education professionals, politicians, and anyone else interested in education will benefit from reading this book." ( Library Journal)

"The best books show you a new way of thinking about a familiar issue. Paul Peterson's Saving Schools offers a new way of thinking about education reform by recounting the histories of reformers...I encourage you to read it." (Daniel Willingham, Washington Post blog)

"Peterson is always a delight to read...I enjoyed the entire book." (Jay Mathews, Washington Post online)