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Can America's faith in public education be restored? As they
analyze the ways in which public school leaders successfully formed
and transformed American education, historian Tyack and political
scientist Hansot conclude that the main challenge facing today's
leaders is to create a new community of commitment to public
education as a common good.
In the first social history of what happened to public schools in
those "years of the locust," the authors explore the daily
experience of schoolchildren in many kinds of communities-the
public school students of working-class northeastern towns, the
rural black children of the South, the prosperous adolescents of
midwestern suburbs. How did educators respond to the fiscal crisis,
and why did Americans retain their faith in public schooling during
the cataclysm? The authors examine how New Dealers regarded public
education and the reaction of public school people to the
distinctive New Deal style in programs such as the National Youth
Administration. They illustrate the story with photographs,
cartoons, and vignettes of life behind the schoolhouse door. Moving
from that troubled period to our own, the authors compare the
anxieties of the depression decade with the uncertainties of the
1970s and 1980s. Heirs to an optimistic tradition and trained to
manage growth, school staff have lately encountered three
shortages: of pupils, money, and public confidence. Professional
morale has dropped as expectations and criticism have mounted.
Changes in the governing and financing of education have made
planning for the future even riskier than usual. Drawing on the
experience of the 1930s to illuminate the problems of the 1980s,
the authors lend historical perspective to current discussions
about the future of public education. They stress the basic
stability of public education while emphasizing the unfinished
business of achieving equality in schooling.
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