Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Educational Issues (Contemporary Learning Series)

This fourteenth edition of TAKING SIDES: EDUCATIONAL ISSUES presents current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. Each issue is thoughtfully framed with an issue summary, an issue introduction, and a postscript. An instructor’s manual with testing material is available for each volume. USING TAKING SIDES IN THE CLASSROOM is also an excellent instructor resource with practical suggestions on incorporating this effective approach in the classroom. Each TAKING SIDES reader features an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites and is supported by our student website, www.dushkin.com/online.

PART 1. Basic Theoretical Issues

ISSUE 1. Should Schooling Be Based on Social Experiences?

YES: John Dewey, from Experience and Education (Macmillan, 1938)

NO: Robert M. Hutchins, from The Conflict in Education in a Democratic Society (Harper & Row, 1953)

Philosopher John Dewey suggests a reconsideration of traditional approaches to schooling, giving fuller attention to the social development of the learner and the quality of his or her total experience. Robert M. Hutchins, noted educator and one-time chancellor of the University of Chicago, argues for a liberal arts education geared to the development of intellectual powers.

ISSUE 2. Should the Curriculum Be Standardized for All?

YES: Mortimer J. Adler, from “The Paideia Proposal: Rediscovering the Essence of Education,” American School Board Journal (July 1982)

NO: John Holt, from Escape From Childhood (E. P. Dutton, 1974)

Philosopher Mortimer J. Adler contends that democracy is best served by a public school system that establishes uniform curricular objectives for all students. Educator John Holt argues that an imposed curriculum damages the individual and usurps a basic human right to select one’s own path of development.

ISSUE 3. Should Behaviorism Shape Educational Practices?

YES: B. F. Skinner, from Beyond Freedom and Dignity (Alfred A. Knopf, 1971)

NO: Carl R. Rogers, from Freedom to Learn for the Eighties (Merrill, 1983)

B. F. Skinner, an influential proponent of behaviorism and professor of psychology, critiques the concept of “inner freedom” and links learning and motivation to the influence of external forces. Professor of psychology and psychiatry Carl R. Rogers offers the “humanistic” alternative to behaviorism, insisting on the reality of subjective forces in human motivation.

ISSUE 4. Is Constructivism the Best Philosophy of Education?

YES: David Elkind, from “The Problem with Constructivism,” The Educational Forum (Summer 2004)

NO: Jamin Carson, from “Objectivism and Education: A Repsonse to David Elkind’s ‘The Problem with Constructivism’,” The Educational Forum (Spring 2005)

Child development professor David Elkind contends that the philosophical positions found in constructivism, though often difficult to apply, are necessary elements in a meaningful reform of educational practices. Jamin Carson, an assistant professor of education and former high school teacher, offers a close critique of constructivism and argues that the philosophy of objectivism is a more realistic and usable basis for the process of education.

PART 2. Current Fundamental Issues

ISSUE 5. Can the Public Schools Produce Good Citizens?

YES: Stephen Macedo, from “Crafting Good Citizens,” Education Next (Spring 2004)

NO: Chester E. Finn, Jr., from “Faulty Engineering,” Education Next (Spring 2004)

Princeton politics professor Stephen Macedo expresses confidence in the public schools’ ability to teach students to become active participants in our democracy, suggesting that naysayers may wish to undermine all public institutions. Thomas B. Fordham Foundation president Chester E. Finn, Jr., contends that the diversity of the American population makes the public schools ill-equipped to produce the engaged citizens our democracy requires.

ISSUE 6. Has Resegregation Diminished the Impact of Brown?

YES: Gary Orfield, Erica D. Frankenberg, and Chungmei Lee, from “The Resurgence of School Segregation,” Educational Leadership (December 2002/January 2003)

NO: Juan Williams, from “The Ruling That Changed America,” American School Board Journal (April 2004)

Harvard professor Gary Orfield and his research associates present evidence that school resegregation has been increasing almost everywhere in recent years, placing a cloud over the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Brown decision. Journalist and commentator Juan Williams, while recognizing the slow pace and backward steps involved in school desegregation, argues that the social and cultural changes inaugurated by Brown mark it as a monumental ruling.

ISSUE 7. Have Public Schools Adequately Accommodated Religion?

YES: Edd Doerr, from “Religion and Public Education,” Phi Delta Kappan (November 1998)

NO: Warren A. Nord, from “The Relevance of Religion to the Curriculum,” The School Administrator (January 1999)

Edd Doerr, executive director of Americans for Religious Liberty, asserts that a fair balance between free exercise rights and the obligation of neutrality has been achieved in the public schools. Warren A. Nord, a professor of the philosophy of religion, contends that the schools are still too secular and that a place in the curriculum must be found for religion.

ISSUE 8. Can Federal Initiatives Rescue Failing Schools?

YES: Andrew Rotherham, from “A New Partnership,” Education Next (Spring 2002)

NO: Peter Schrag, from “Bush’s Education Fraud,” The American Prospect (February 2004)

Education policy expert Andrew Rotherham argues that new federally imposed accountability standards will enhance opportunity and overhaul failing schools. Education writer-editor Peter Schrag finds the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind act to be confusing, underfunded, and ultimately self-defeating.

ISSUE 9. Do High-Stakes Assessments Improve Learning?

YES: Nina Hurwitz and Sol Hurwitz, from “Tests That Count,” American School Board Journal (January 2000)

NO: Ken Jones, from “A Balanced School Accountability Model: An Alternative to High-Stakes Testing,” Phi Delta Kappan (April 2004)

High school teacher Nina Hurwitz and education consultant Sol Hurwitz assemble evidence from states that are leading the movement to set high standards of educational performance and cautiously conclude that it could stimulate long-overdue renewal. Teacher education director Ken Jones believes that much more than test scores must be used to develop an approach to school accountability that effectively blends federal, state, and local agencies and powers.

ISSUE 10. Should "Public Schooling" Be Redefined?

YES: Frederick M. Hess, from “What Is a ‘Public School’? Principles for A New Century,” Phi Delta Kappan (February 2004)

NO: Linda Nathan et al., from “A Response to Frederick Hess,” Phi Delta Kappan (February 2004)

Frederick M. Hess, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, advocates a broadening of the definition of "public schooling" in light of recent developments such as vouchers, charter schools, and home schooling. Linda Nathan, Joe Nathan, Ray Bacchetti, and Evans Clinchy express a variety of concerns about the conceptual expansion Hess proposes.

PART 3. Current Specific Issues

ISSUE 11. Has the Supreme Court Reconfigured American Education?

YES: Charles L. Glenn, from “Fanatical Secularism,” Education Next (Winter 2003)

NO: Paul E. Peterson, from “Victory for Vouchers?” Commentary (September 2002)

Professor of education Charles L. Glenn argues that the Supreme Court’s decision in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris is an immediate antidote to the public school’s secularist philosophy. Professor of government Paul E. Peterson, while welcoming the decision, contends that the barricades against widespread use of vouchers in religious schools will postpone any lasting effects.

ISSUE 12. Can Charter Schools Revitalize Public Education?

YES: Chester E. Finn, Jr., Bruno V. Manno, and Gregg Vanourek, from “The Radicalization of School Reform,” Society (May/June 2001)

NO: Marc F. Bernstein, from “Why I’m Wary of Charter Schools,” The School Administrator (August 1999)

Former assistant secretaries of education Chester E. Finn, Jr., and Bruno V. Manno, along with Gregg Vanourek, vice president of the Charter School Division of the K12 education program, provide an update on the charter school movement, which, they contend, is reinventing public education. School superintendent Marc F. Bernstein sees increasing racial and social class segregation, church-state issues, and financial harm as outgrowths of the charter school movement.

ISSUE 13. Is Home Schooling a Danger to American Society?

YES: Michael W. Apple, from “The Cultural Politics of Home Schooling,” Peabody Journal of Education (vol. 75, nos. 1 & 2, 2000)

NO: Brian D. Ray, from “Home Schooling for Individuals’ Gain and Soceity’s Common Good,” Peabody Journal of Education (vol. 75, nos. 1 & 2, 2000)

Education professor Michael W. Apple examines the larger context of the "conservative restoration" in which much of the home schooling movement is lodged and sounds a number of socio-cultural warnings. Brian D. Ray, pr esident of the National Home Education Research Institute, feels that in the historical struggle over the control of influences on the younger generation, home schooling has strengthened the side of freedom and democracy.