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The Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools
Named one of the Ten Best Books about New York City by the New York Times
488 pages, Paperback
First published June 6, 1974
About the author
Diane Ravitch
64 books123 followersDiane Ravitch is a Research Professor of Education at New York University, a historian of education, and a research professor at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She is the Founder and President of the Network for Public Education.
She was U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education from 1991-93.
She was married to Richard Ravitch from 1960 until they divorced in 1986.
She married Mary Butz in 2012.
Aside from her many books on education history and policy, Ravitch writes for The New York Review of Books and maintains an influential blog on education.
She was U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education from 1991-93.
She was married to Richard Ravitch from 1960 until they divorced in 1986.
She married Mary Butz in 2012.
Aside from her many books on education history and policy, Ravitch writes for The New York Review of Books and maintains an influential blog on education.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 14, 2022
Diane Ravitch's "The Great School Wars: New York City, 1805-1973" is a fabulous book that launched her stellar academic career and which also contributed to her being made Assistant Secretary of State for Education (1991-1993) in the administration of George Bush. Although the prime subject is the Public School System of New York city (NYC) , the book contains the best description of ward politics and the techniques of nineteenth century machine politics (specifically the workings of Boss' Tweeds notorious (Tammany Hall organization) that I have ever read. It is an excellent book of American history in the very broad sense.
Throughout the time period covered, the public school system of New York City was different from that of the state. The state legislature was continually passing laws to solve the problems peculiar to that of New York city. The basic difference was that the state was essentially white and Protestant whereas the city which was the entry point for immigration becoming the home first to a large population of Irish Catholics, then to Italian Catholics and Jews and finally to Blacks and Puerto Ricans. All the different groups of new arrivals were regarded with some disdain by those who preceded them. All had issues with the Public Schools system as they found it.
Ravitch organizes her narrative around 4 "wars" and three "inter-war" periods.
The First School War took place during the period from 1805-1842 when the Catholic Church attempted to take control the public schools. At the start of the 19th century, up to 40% of the school children were not in school. Of those attending , 75% were in private schools and 25% were in the schools of the Society for Free Schools a charitable or benevolent society dominated by affluent Protestants especially Quakers. The Free School Society used the Lancastrian system where teachers would be responsible for up to 1000 pupils while most of the teaching would be done by student monitors. The Catholic Church wanted NYC to fund its schools which used conventional methods.
As a result of the Catholic lobbying, NYC decided to pay subsidies to the Catholic or Parochial schools. The city also set up its own free schools overseen by school boards in each of the city wards. The free schools of the city were financed through a real estate tax implemented in the 1844.
During the so-called inter-war period, Tammany Hall which controlled the city wards was able to take control of the public system. Tammany Hall hired mainly Catholic teachers. The focus in the class was on rote learning. There were typically 80 to 100 students per class.
The goal of the Second School War (1873 to 1896) was to put educational professionals in charge of the system. The experts wanted to implement Pestalozzi 's method and to move away from rote learning. These reformers proposed centralized management at the city level which was vehemently opposed by Tammany Hall. In 1896, the reformers won as NYC abolished the local boards and put the management of all schools under one central board.
During, the interwar period from 1897 to 1913 the reformers shifted the focus away from the 3Rs to building complete citizens. Vocational or industrial training begin. There was much less emphasis on memorization.
However, as the modernization advanced, there was a massive immigration of central European Jews and Italians which created a great shortage of schools and class space.
The Third School War (1914-1919) was a struggle to lower costs. The central board of NYC adopted the Gary Plan which created more class space by reducing academic instruction to half of the day. A gymnasium would be used as a classroom in the morning and as a physical education facility in the afternoon. To increase the utilization of the available spare even more, evening shifts were added. As late as 1930, 50,000 students (or 4.5%of the total ) were still studying in evening platoons.
Things improved. By 1940 the average class size was down to 30 because of a declining school age population and the building program of the New Deal .
The Fourth School War (1954 - 1973) was waged against racial injustice. The goal was first to achieve Integration and later to put schools under community control.
The Supreme Court in 1954 banned segregation in schools. NYC tried to respond by busing students further away from their homes in order to create racially balanced schools. This approach did not work because the white communities resisted and because the non-White population had become the majority throughout the city.
The next thing tried was to put the schools under the control of community boards. To test the concept, three 3 "Demonstration districts" created in 1966. The boards in the Demonstration Districts fell under the control of ideologues Black Power and Marxism. The UFT (United Federation of Teachers) rose up in resistance to the Demonstration boards. Strikes and noisy protests degenerating into riots followed.
The fourth war ended when in 1969 when state governor Nelson Rockefeller passed a new bill creating 30 to 33 school districts each having a community board board. The teachers accepted the new state law in exchange for guarantees of job security. Ultimately the UFT was the big winner as it was able to take control of the new community boards through the electoral process.
Ravitch's writing is truly masterful as she is able to present the big picture while neglecting none of the detail. She observes that the issue of centralization versus decentralization came up during every war. NYC switched back and forth on the question. Neither approach proved to be a panacea. The activists always managed to change things but the outcomes were seldom what they hoped for.
Throughout the time period covered, the public school system of New York City was different from that of the state. The state legislature was continually passing laws to solve the problems peculiar to that of New York city. The basic difference was that the state was essentially white and Protestant whereas the city which was the entry point for immigration becoming the home first to a large population of Irish Catholics, then to Italian Catholics and Jews and finally to Blacks and Puerto Ricans. All the different groups of new arrivals were regarded with some disdain by those who preceded them. All had issues with the Public Schools system as they found it.
Ravitch organizes her narrative around 4 "wars" and three "inter-war" periods.
The First School War took place during the period from 1805-1842 when the Catholic Church attempted to take control the public schools. At the start of the 19th century, up to 40% of the school children were not in school. Of those attending , 75% were in private schools and 25% were in the schools of the Society for Free Schools a charitable or benevolent society dominated by affluent Protestants especially Quakers. The Free School Society used the Lancastrian system where teachers would be responsible for up to 1000 pupils while most of the teaching would be done by student monitors. The Catholic Church wanted NYC to fund its schools which used conventional methods.
As a result of the Catholic lobbying, NYC decided to pay subsidies to the Catholic or Parochial schools. The city also set up its own free schools overseen by school boards in each of the city wards. The free schools of the city were financed through a real estate tax implemented in the 1844.
During the so-called inter-war period, Tammany Hall which controlled the city wards was able to take control of the public system. Tammany Hall hired mainly Catholic teachers. The focus in the class was on rote learning. There were typically 80 to 100 students per class.
The goal of the Second School War (1873 to 1896) was to put educational professionals in charge of the system. The experts wanted to implement Pestalozzi 's method and to move away from rote learning. These reformers proposed centralized management at the city level which was vehemently opposed by Tammany Hall. In 1896, the reformers won as NYC abolished the local boards and put the management of all schools under one central board.
During, the interwar period from 1897 to 1913 the reformers shifted the focus away from the 3Rs to building complete citizens. Vocational or industrial training begin. There was much less emphasis on memorization.
However, as the modernization advanced, there was a massive immigration of central European Jews and Italians which created a great shortage of schools and class space.
The Third School War (1914-1919) was a struggle to lower costs. The central board of NYC adopted the Gary Plan which created more class space by reducing academic instruction to half of the day. A gymnasium would be used as a classroom in the morning and as a physical education facility in the afternoon. To increase the utilization of the available spare even more, evening shifts were added. As late as 1930, 50,000 students (or 4.5%of the total ) were still studying in evening platoons.
Things improved. By 1940 the average class size was down to 30 because of a declining school age population and the building program of the New Deal .
The Fourth School War (1954 - 1973) was waged against racial injustice. The goal was first to achieve Integration and later to put schools under community control.
The Supreme Court in 1954 banned segregation in schools. NYC tried to respond by busing students further away from their homes in order to create racially balanced schools. This approach did not work because the white communities resisted and because the non-White population had become the majority throughout the city.
The next thing tried was to put the schools under the control of community boards. To test the concept, three 3 "Demonstration districts" created in 1966. The boards in the Demonstration Districts fell under the control of ideologues Black Power and Marxism. The UFT (United Federation of Teachers) rose up in resistance to the Demonstration boards. Strikes and noisy protests degenerating into riots followed.
The fourth war ended when in 1969 when state governor Nelson Rockefeller passed a new bill creating 30 to 33 school districts each having a community board board. The teachers accepted the new state law in exchange for guarantees of job security. Ultimately the UFT was the big winner as it was able to take control of the new community boards through the electoral process.
Ravitch's writing is truly masterful as she is able to present the big picture while neglecting none of the detail. She observes that the issue of centralization versus decentralization came up during every war. NYC switched back and forth on the question. Neither approach proved to be a panacea. The activists always managed to change things but the outcomes were seldom what they hoped for.
August 11, 2008
The history of the NYC school system is a long and involved saga. I was impressed with the amount of research that the author undertook to complete this book. By dividing the history into segments of the wars between different factions and interest groups, the author effectively illustrated major trends that repeat themselves in different forms. For example, the reader clearly sees the similarities between the immigration of early Irish settlers and their attempts at integration into the school system and the struggles with the integration of African-Americans and Puerto Ricans in the 1960s.
I would have given this book more stars, but I grappled with it because I often found the text to be too dry and unengaging. There were sections that read like a roster of chronoligical events and it hard to focus. In the end, I stuck with the book because there are very few books that contain such a comprehensive history.
I would have given this book more stars, but I grappled with it because I often found the text to be too dry and unengaging. There were sections that read like a roster of chronoligical events and it hard to focus. In the end, I stuck with the book because there are very few books that contain such a comprehensive history.
Want to Read
June 11, 2012Multiple copies: Main LA339.N5 R38
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews