Educational Reform: A Self-Scrutinizing Memoir

Professor Sarason candidly confronts his “errors of omission and commission, mistakes, and emphases” in his half-century involvement in educational reform. No other major figure in this arena has made public such a searching self-critique.

Sharing his thoughts about the future of education, Sarason discusses his thinking on: charter schools, productive learning, motivation, high-stakes testing, the need for teachers to relate differently to each other and to parents, the importance of working through change, and the mistaken idea that we can clone reforms. Although written before the September 11th World Trade Center tragedy, the last chapter of this book is extraordinarily relevant to the subsequent national importance of societal values and responsible citizenship.

Although this is a deliberately personally revealing book, Sarason’s self-scrutiny will be stimulating and invaluable to anyone interested in reform as concept, action, and values.

This is a book that deserves the label courageous.