A School by Every Other Name: Culture X and Public Education

In A School By Every Other Name Ebert and Studebaker suggest that the fundamental problem facing public education is that education is fundamentally an institution. The failure of school reform efforts to elevate public education in the United States to a pre-eminent position is due to the myth of educational reform, the mistaken belief that substantive changes actually occur. Yet how different is education today than it was 50, 100, even 200 years ago? Reform has become a part of the survival mechanism that keeps the institution in business. A School By Every Other Name calls for a revolution that would reconceptualize the institution of education. That effort begins with overcoming our national cultural identity crisis. Rather than prescribing what must be done, A School By Every Other Name presents poignant perspectives and background and then invites the reader to begin answering the questions that could lead to building a new institution of education. Not just a book about education, A School By Every Other Name is a workbook for beginning the dialogue toward systemic change in American schools.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Wrestling with the Beast Part 1 Who Are We? Part 2 Reforming Reform Chapter 2 The American Culture Part 3 As the Change Incubates: Working with the System to Your Child's Best Advantage Chapter 4 The Reform Model in Education Chapter 5 What Makes a Reform Effort Worthwhile? Chapter 6 Toward a New Educational Institution Chapter 7 Logistics of the New Institution Chapter 8 Education in the New Institution Chapter 9 Educating Children Means Educating Ourselves Chapter 10 Making an Impact on Education: What You Can Do

About the Author :
Edward Ebert, an educator for 29 years, is a professor of education at Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina, where he teaches courses in educational psychology, introduction to education, elementary science methods, child development, classroom management, assessment, and creative problem solving. Deborah Scott Studebaker founded the SHINE Mentoring Alliance and created Poetry in Motion writers' workshops for children.

Review :
This thoughtful book may be the first scholarly work from a contemporary school of education that advocates and clearly demonstrates the need for a national curriculum. Bravo! Ebert and Studebaker have undertaken an audacious task–to describe the myriad, interlocking challenges facing America's educational system and posing questions that must be answered to prepare our young to live productively in an uncertain world that demands more and more of its citizens every day. Not everyone will agree with their analysis or suggested strategies for reform. But everyone who reads this book will think more deeply about the issues and what must be done to ensure the nation's future. Ebert and Studebaker take a thoughtful and original look at education in the United States and offer concrete and at times revolutionary suggestions for change. Unlike many books of this genre, they not only focus their proposals on how individual students might benefit, they also look at how our nation might be better equipped to compete against an increasingly technical and scientifically literate world. The book will be useful for policy planners. It can be especially useful as a supplemental text that will stimulate discussion in undergraduate classrooms.