Possible Lives:
The Promise of Public Education in America
Excerpt from the Penguin press release for Possible Lives: The Promise
of Public Education in America by Mike Rose. Paperback edition published
September 1996 ($12.95).
"Possible Lives is a book about bringing new hope, as
well as new realism, to our national debate on public schools in America.
As the gap widens between the apocalyptic sound bites of the public school
critics, and the lofty pronouncements of the public school reformers, what
is desperately needed is a clear-eyed, in-the-trenches look at what is really
going on in public schools, and an inspiring vision about what can be done
to improve them. Mike Rose provides that vision, and with it an exploration
of the role of public education -- and public institutions -- in our society.
"With the goal of 'generating a hopeful vision in a time of bitterness
and lost faith,' Mike Rose spent four years traveling around the country
in search of good classrooms: from blue-collar Los Angeles to Mexican-American
border towns; from the South Side of Chicago to rural Montana; from the
Mississippi Delta and Kentucky to Baltimore and New York City. What he discovered
--
enthusiastic, imaginative teachers; dedicated administrators; and schools
succeeding despite the odds -- provides a balance to the constant barrage
of negative images in the media about the state of our schools.
"In evocative prose and telling anecdotes, Rose recreates the classrooms
he visited and the remarkable people he met there, using these examples
to illuminate the attitudes and policies that make for great schools. He
shows us how teachers work, how children learn, and what schools do for
their communities. In the process, he illustrates that the classroom is
where 'America is being created' and that by bringing out the best in our
public schools, we can revitalize ourselves as a nation."
Press Quotes:
"This big-shouldered book, full of ardor . . .offers us reasonable
hope that with attention and care we can again make public education what
it was meant to be, and must yet be." -- Los Angeles Times
"Rose is a remarkable observer. . .[He] has produced a paean to American
democracy as it is imperfectly reflected in schools across our impossibly
diverse landscape." -- Houston Chronicle
"Rose, whos writing is rich and graceful, re-creates one magical scene
after another." -- The Boston Globe.
About Mike Rose:
Mike Rose has been a teacher for over 25 years and has been studying teaching
and learning for the last 15 of those years. Currently a professor at the
UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and a nationally
recognized expert on language and literacy, he is a graduate of Loyola University,
the University of Southern California, and UCLA. The son of immigrants,
Rose was raised in South Central Los Angeles, attended both parochial and
public schools and colleges, and has taught at all level's of the nation's
public school systems. His 1989 book, Lives on the Boundary, was
an award-winning investigation of remedial education in America.
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