united states

If you have ever wanted to know how the United States' present day school system came to be, then School & Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, by Steven E. Tozer, Paul C. Violas and Guy Senese, is a must read. The book covers the earliest public school system influenced by Thomas Jefferson up to the system that exists today. As equality and equity became a major focus, the system continually modified itself to meet the varying needs of diverse students, changing first to accommodate women, then African Americans and American Indians, and most recently, students with learning disabilities. The book also offers an in depth look at the major figures who were responsible for effecting these changes: Thomas Jefferson, Horace Mann, Emma Willard, Booker T. Washington, Edward Burghardt Du Bois, John Collier and James Bryant Conant.

I never stopped to think about how a society's ideology or system of beliefs can alter the educational system. This book showed me just how much change did occur once the United States began to see the treatment of all of its people as equals as a necessity. If you are a teacher, student, or parent of a student in a public or private school, or you just have an interest in this country's educational system, then this book has a lot to offer you.

School and Society, by Tozer, Violas, and Senese, presents the relationship between schools and the society they serve from a historical perspective. Each chapter presents its content in an informative and detailed manner, concluding with a summary of major points of emphasis. Additionally, each chapter ends with selected readings that shed a more personal light on the issue(s) presented in the chapter. Hopefully, the book is being updated for a fourth edition, as many contemporary issues in education are not discussed. Topics such as early intervention strategies to prevent future learning difficulties and alternative forms of schooling, to name just a few, are not addressed. Overall, the book is informative, and the reader can be assured of reading a thorough and enlightening text concerned with presenting the volatile relationship between American society and the schools that prepare young people to be members of society's future.

Review: School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives reflects critically on the social significance teaching practices as well as institutional goals, and policies that surround and shape classroom procedure. The text also provides an understanding of contemporary educational processes and actively promotes critical thinking through its source readings and abstract inclusions (Tozer, 1998). There is great focus on diversity and equity throughout the text. Several views on how to provide an equitable and high quality education to an increasingly diverse school population are discussed. As well, curriculum and teaching practices are evaluated for effectiveness throughout the historical perspective of this text. The essence of this text was related through easy reading that was saturated with information relative to its content. An inside view on foundations of education were provided and as well, created an informational foundation for all educational processes in today's society. I found the text to be helpful in guiding my thoughts and ideas. The text also gave me clarification on many common educational practices.