Why School? - by Mike Rose (Paperback)

About the Book

"Why School?" is a little book driven by big questions. What does it mean to be educated? What is intelligence? How should we think about intelligence, education, and opportunity in an open society? Drawing on forty years of teaching and research and "a profound understanding of the opportunities, both intellectual and economic, that come from education" (Booklist), award-winning author Mike Rose reflects on these and other questions related to public schooling in America. He answers them in beautifully written chapters that are both rich in detail and informed by an extensive knowledge of history, the psychology of learning, and the politics of education.
This paperback edition includes three new chapters showing how cognitive science actually narrows our understanding of learning, how to increase college graduation rates, and how to value the teaching of basic skills. An updated introduction by Rose, who has been hailed as "a superb writer and an even better storyteller" (TLN Teachers Network), reflects on recent developments in school reform. Lauded as "a beautifully written work of literary nonfiction" ("The Christian Science Monitor") and called "stunning" by the "New Educator Journal," "Why School?" offers an eloquent call for a bountiful democratic vision of the purpose of schooling.

Book Synopsis

Why School? is a little book driven by big questions. What does it mean to be educated? What is intelligence? How should we think about intelligence, education, and opportunity in an open society? Drawing on forty years of teaching and research and "a profound understanding of the opportunities, both intellectual and economic, that come from education" (Booklist), award-winning author Mike Rose reflects on these and other questions related to public schooling in America. He answers them in beautifully written chapters that are both rich in detail and informed by an extensive knowledge of history, the psychology of learning, and the politics of education.

This paperback edition includes three new chapters showing how cognitive science actually narrows our understanding of learning, how to increase college graduation rates, and how to value the teaching of basic skills. An updated introduction by Rose, who has been hailed as "a superb writer and an even better storyteller" (TLN Teachers Network), reflects on recent developments in school reform. Lauded as "a beautifully written work of literary nonfiction" (The Christian Science Monitor) and called "stunning" by the New Educator Journal, Why School? offers an eloquent call for a bountiful democratic vision of the purpose of schooling.

Review Quotes

"Once again at his most bold and brilliant...Rose is a rare treasure in this dreary moment of debate along the dismal flatlands of education discourse. He brings us to the mountaintops."
-Jonathan Kozol

"Rose gives a larger sense of the interplay between what happens in the classroom and the world outside school...[and] a capacious sense of what can happen within the interior world of the classroom."
-The New York Review of Books

"Rose puts into clear words what so many of us feel is lacking in our children's education...[He] recalibrates our thinking in this little book, the first step toward change."
-Los Angeles Times

"Wondrous."
-In These Times

"A compact and potent collection of essays."
-The Nation

Selected by Bill Moyers as a "must read" book of 2009 "I interviewed Mike Rose 20 years ago for my series A World of Ideas. He was already on the path to becoming one of our most exciting thinkers about education in the lives of marginalized people. He lives in the real world, and this new book-slim and vividly written-is an inspiration for how to cope with it in our classrooms."
-Bill Moyers

"This a beautifully written work...Mike Rose draws on over 40 years of teaching experience and research, weaving memoir and policy discussion together in this moving call for a humane approach to education that accounts for the needs of every child."
-Christian Science Monitor

"Rose invites parents, community members, and other stakeholders to join the conversation orbiting our educational system and reclaim it in the name of democracy and equity...Rose profiles remarkable teachers, engaged students, and blossoming schools. His descriptions of each are underlined by his convection that learning, as a human endeavor...is magnificent. It is wondrous."
-In These Times

"Aims to reinvigorate a discussion on the value of education in a democracy...strongly advocates for education that values reflection, curiosity, and imagination rather than the quantifiable measures favored by economics."
-Booklist

"One of the most insightful, challenging, honest, helpful, and encouraging books I've read in many years."
-Joe Nathan, Director, Center for School Change, University of Minnesota

About the Author

Mike Rose, a professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, is the author of numerous books, including The Mind at Work, Possible Lives, and Back to School (The New Press). Among his many awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Grawemeyer Award in Education, and the Commonwealth Club of California Award for Literary Excellence in Nonfiction. He lives in Santa Monica.