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Keeping School: Letters to Families from Principals of Two Small Schools
Education reformers Deborah Meier, Theodore Sizer, and Nancy Sizer have published books that are acknowledged classics of education writing—books that have literally helped shape a movement centered on small schools, community, and alternative visions of teaching and learning.
But as school principals, all three have also done another kind of writing, as well. Every week as principles they wrote short essays in their schools' newsletters to families. Sharp and accessible but intellectually ambitious, these little essays talk about everything from homework to discipline, from academic expectations to reading for pleasure.
Keeping School collects the best of these gems from the two schools the authors have most recently an urban public elementary school in Boston, and an exurban charter secondary school thirty miles west in Devens, Massachusetts.
There could be no better portrait of the kind of small school that Meier and the Sizers advocate—and the values behind them—than these elegant, thoughtful, intimate letters. They are organized around the themes of Authority, Community, Learning, and Standards, and the writers, who have been friends and colleagues for years, frame them with new essays on those larger topics.
Reflecting decades of practical wisdom, this collection is a portrait of a different way of "keeping school" and an essential companion to books like Ted Sizer's Horace's Compromise, Ted and Nancy Sizer's The Students Are Watching, and Meier's The Power of Their Ideas.
But as school principals, all three have also done another kind of writing, as well. Every week as principles they wrote short essays in their schools' newsletters to families. Sharp and accessible but intellectually ambitious, these little essays talk about everything from homework to discipline, from academic expectations to reading for pleasure.
Keeping School collects the best of these gems from the two schools the authors have most recently an urban public elementary school in Boston, and an exurban charter secondary school thirty miles west in Devens, Massachusetts.
There could be no better portrait of the kind of small school that Meier and the Sizers advocate—and the values behind them—than these elegant, thoughtful, intimate letters. They are organized around the themes of Authority, Community, Learning, and Standards, and the writers, who have been friends and colleagues for years, frame them with new essays on those larger topics.
Reflecting decades of practical wisdom, this collection is a portrait of a different way of "keeping school" and an essential companion to books like Ted Sizer's Horace's Compromise, Ted and Nancy Sizer's The Students Are Watching, and Meier's The Power of Their Ideas.
- GenresEducation
187 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 13, 2020
For anyone interested in progressive school reform in America this is a good read--written by two of the biggest names of the contemporary progressive education movement. This is a compilations of letters to families written by Meier and the Sizers as principals of their respective schools. It is divided into four themes. Meier and the Sizers trade off with introductory essays to each theme. It then follows a selection of letters with prefacing remarks from the two schools.
August 29, 2010
My kids (who go to Parker School) read sections of this for their summer reading assignment, but I read the whole book. Much of what was said was old hat for me, but there were some novel perspectives voiced and some very inspirational quotes. I may need to re-read some sections with a highlighter in hand.
April 19, 2012
The Parker school's summer reading book. I ordered this throuugh Amazon and have read about half of it so far. A lot of food for thought on education and community. good book, but I did not read beyond the assigned reading.
May 1, 2012
Many interesting ideas. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't have chosen it if it hadn't been required reading for my son last year
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews