Studied Ignorance : How Curricular Censorship and Textbook Selection Are Dumbing Down American Education / Herbert N. Foerstel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Foerstel, Herbert N., author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (184 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

New York : Bloomsbury Publishing (US), 2023.

Place of Publication:

Praeger, 2013.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file HTML

Summary:

Despite concerted efforts from our educators, administrators, and government, American education continues to struggle. The author of this work argues that the decline can be traced to censored curricula, inaccurate textbooks, test-driven evaluations, and increasing poverty among the student population. Under the definition of "failure" specified in the No Child Left Behind Act, more than 80 percent of American schools could currently be labeled as failing, while the quality of American education overall and our students' performance continue to rank unfavorably against international competition. This book examines the crisis in American education and identifies how weaknesses in textbooks, teaching, and testing have created the crisis facing American education-a topic that dramatically affects students, teachers, and parents. Author Herbert N. Foerstel exposes the textbook "wars" that began a century ago and rage on with even more venom today. His book traces the legal basis for curricular censorship that dates back 75 years; identifies the bizarre process by which shoddy textbooks have been written, published, and come to be widely accepted; and documents the disastrous effect that reliance on these materials has had on the curriculum. Foerstel also supplies a careful assessment of the current political debate over education reform and of the proposed solutions to these problems.

Contents:

Foreword by Larry Cohen Introduction 1. Textbook Wars 2. The Law and Curricular Censorship 3. Writing and Publishing Textbooks 4. Adopting and Teaching Bad Textbooks 5. The Crumbling Core Curriculum 6. Conclusions and Recommendations Afterword: Presidential Politics and Education Reform Notes Bibliography Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9798216020752

9798216151029

9781440803239

1440803234

OCLC:

861200203