The current school system churns out millions of illiterates and mental zombies—but here’s how we’re going to fix it, starting today.
Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents across the nation grapple with a new and horrifying understanding of just how bad our educational system has become.
Absurdly complicated and illogical mathematical instruction? Check.
Dumbed-down reading and writing assignments? Check.
Lazy and uneducated teachers? Check.
Radical political indoctrination? Check.
It all adds up to a system that seems hopelessly, terribly, and irrevocably broken.
But as an educator and author, Andrew Bernstein reminds us that American education in the nineteenth through the early twentieth century was superb. This nation once knew how to turn out the brightest, most resourceful, and independent-thinking people the world had ever seen. We can do it again.
Contents
Introduction
Part One: The Current Crisis of American Schooling and How We Go t There
Chapter One: The Terrible State of U.S. Schooling
Chapter Two: Superb Education in America’s Past
Chapter Three: The American War Against Reading and Learning Begins
Chapter Four: The Curse of the CRSE
Chapter Five: John Dewey—the Arch-Villain of U.S. Schooling
Chapter Six: Educational Supporters of Literacy and Learning
Chapter Seven: The Enemies of Intellectual Training Attack
Chapter Eight: The Great Reading Wars
Chapter Nine: Dumbing Down the Rest of the Curriculum
Part Two: How We Can Fix the Educational Disaster
Chapter Ten: Teacher Training—The Mess That It Is And How We Can Fix it
Chapter Eleven: The Impregnable Fortress
Chapter Twelve: Parents in Charge—the Past
Chapter Thirteen: Parents in Charge—Overseas
Chapter Fourteen: Parents in Charge—At Home
Chapter Fifteen: The Educational Bonanza of Privatizing Government Schools
Chapter Sixteen: What Schooling Could and Should be Like
Chapter Seventeen: Curricula and the Order of Presentation
Afterword
