The American School

From the Puritans to the Trump Era

Joel Spring

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351383578
• Edition: 10
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Educational Policy

This current, comprehensive history of American education is designed to stimulate critical analysis and critical thinking by offering alternative interpretations of each historical period. In his signature straight-forward, concise style, Joel Spring provides a variety of interpretations of American schooling, from conservative to leftist, in order to spark the reader's own critical thinking about history and schools. This tenth edition follows the history of American education from the seventeenth century to the integration into global capitalism of the twenty-first century to the tumultuous current political landscape. In particular, the updates focus on tracing the direct religious links between the colonial Puritans and the current-day Trump administration.

• Chapters 1 and 2 have been rewritten to take a closer look at religious traditions in American schools, leading up to the educational ideas of the current U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
• An updated Chapter 15 further links traditional religious fundamentalist ideas and thetwentieth century free market arguments of the Chicago school of economists to President Trump's administration and the influence of the Alt-Right.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Time Lines
• About the Author
• Preface
• Chapter 1 Thinking Critically about History
• Chapter 2 Globalization and Religion in Colonial Education
• Chapter 3 Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Moral Reform in the New Republic
• Chapter 4 The Ideology and Politics of the Common School
• Chapter 5 The Common School and the Threat of Cultural Pluralism
• Chapter 6 Organizing the American School: Teachers and Bureaucracy
• Chapter 7 Multiculturalism and the Failure of the Common School Ideal
• Chapter 8 Global Migration and the Growth of the Welfare Function of Schools
• Chapter 9 Human Capital: High School, Junior High School, and Vocational Guidance and Education
• Chapter 10 Scientific School Management: Testing, Immigrants, and Experts
• Chapter 11 The Politics of Knowledge: Teachers’ Unions, the American Legion, and the American Way
• Chapter 12 Schools, Media, and Popular Culture: Influencing the Minds of Children and Teenagers
• Chapter 13 American Schools and Global Politics: The Cold War and Poverty
• Chapter 14 The Fruits of Globalization: Civil Rights, Global Migration, and Multicultural Education
• Chapter 15 Globalization, Religion, Free Markets, and Human Capital: From Nixon to Trump
• Index