Defending Public Education - Swensson, Jeff

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Résumé :
Traditional public education is at a pivotal juncture in history. A structural divide generated by partisanship creates two major perspectives about America's schooling. This book takes the reader to the brink of the chasm that divides America's schooling. One perspective equips students with the capabilities for navigating precarious-balance, the other adheres to static-balance. These dynamically opposed iterations of balance are the origin of a battle to determine which perspective will control education, and, as a result, control citizenship, government, and individual rights. Throughout this discussion, the tactics and intentions of the foes of public schools are called-out for their devastating impact on teaching, learning, and social reality. This book is a clarion call to defend traditional public schools and their role as the launching pad for the intellectual autonomy and open futures that all US students deserve....

Biographie:
Jeff Swensson is a veteran educator who has served in public schools throughout the Midwest. He is the co-author or author of six books that focus on instruction, curriculum, leadership, finance, student learning, and contemporary issues in traditional public education....

Sommaire:

Dedication
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
Prologue
Introduction: Just Look Inside This Book and You Will See.

Section One-Balance?

Chapter 1: About Teeter-Totters and Educational Choice
The History of US Education Is its Topography
Parents and Caregivers
A Small Piece of Democracy

Chapter 2: The Common Good
The Rule of Law
About Free Market Education
About-Face in the Marketplace

Chapter 3: The Best Interests of.
Informal and Formal Education
Who Knows Better What Are Best Interests?
Closely-Held Beliefs Know Best Interests
Networks Know Best Interests
Partisanship Knows Best Interests
US Education Knows Best Interests
Following a Long Arc to Best Interests
Disrupting the Arc
It's Not Education, It's Shopping!
Buying Best Interests: Boutique-Ideology

Chapter 4: Partisanship
The Way Things Were Is the Way They're Supposed to Be
When Enough Is Enough
The Fly in the Ointment for Partisanship: Learning
Where Learning Thrives
Partisanship Can't Function
Repairing Function: One-Faith Education
Repairing Function: Push-Back Against the Arc
The CRT Straw Man
Adult-Centric Education
Partisans Recoil
For Partisans, the Present Is Downright Scary
Certainty About What There Is to Fear
Partisans Can See Clearly Now

Chapter 5: I See These Threats Looking at Me
Intellectual Autonomy
Compelling State Interest
The Outside-World
Partisanship Accommodations
Down a Fear-Filled Rabbit Hole
To Restore Partisanship in US Education

Chapter 6: Revolt of the Likeminded
No Likeminded Parent Left Behind
Limiting the Universe of Discourse
Rejecting How to Think and the Common Good
The Art of the Straw Man
Orthodoxy Trumps Majority Rule

Section Two-Deus Ex Machina in the Script for Partisanship

Chapter 7: Preemptive Censorship
Oh Where, Oh Where Has Thinking Gone?
Discriminatory Thinking, Anyone?
What If Preemption Doesn't Work?

Chapter 8: Anarchic Dissent
Anarchic Dissent Is as Partisanship Does
The Ideological Foundation of Anarchic Dissent
Public Dissonance
Public Dissonance on Behalf of Parental Rights
Anarchic Dissent: Ideological Demo-Day
A Six-Pound Partisan Sledge Hammer
A Twelve-Pound Partisan Sledge Hammer
The Granddaddy of All Partisan Sledge Hammers
The Anarchic Dissonance of Liberty
Saving Public Education by Destroying It

Chapter 9: Rights and US Education
The Exclusive Rights of Partisanship
The Right to Perpetual Winning
Standardized Testing: Brass Knuckles in Partisan Boxing Gloves
The Right to Determine Losers
The Right to Defund Losers
The Right to What-to-Think
The Right to Dumb-Down Learning
A Circular Bill of Rights: Partisanship's Gift to Education

Section Three-The Foes of Traditional Public Education
Chapter 10: Partisan Education
More to Ideology than Meets the Eye
Partisan Education: A Transactional Relationship
Transactional Relationships Are Exclusionary
A Pox on the House of Intellectual Autonomy
The Ethos of Partisan Education
Partisan Education: What Is Right and What Is True
Orthodoxy: Limitless or Limited?
Weaponizing Partisan Education
A Retreat from Conscience
Commitment to Preemption
Retreating Is Winning
Money: The Partisanship Weapon for Choice
Just How Much Does All This Cost?

Section Four-Religion, Courts, the Feds, and Public School

Chapter 11: Evolution-The Faithful Sound the Alarm
Faithful Partisanship, Evolution, and Learning
What Science Says
Alarmi...