As a community college professor, I see the products of today's public education system. It doesn't take a lot of poking around to realize that the system is broken, but not for the reasons that conservative, neoliberal, anti-government folks would have you believe. It's broken because of the emphasis on taking tests instead of learning, it's broken because it's being starved of money and resources, and it's broken because it's being purposefully dismantled by the free market.

These Schools Belong to You and Me helps to define the purpose of public schooling, explain how radical public schools were built in the mid-late 20th century, and explains how the conservative agenda has co-opted that agenda to take down public schools. It's a quick read, and an important one. ( )

Thoroughly enjoyable. I loved the thematic arrangement of the chapters. Regrettably, the authors don't present any new findings - they just drive home things most educators have known for years; treating each subject as an island is bad, standardized testing destroys the vast majority of students, standardized testing is political and inherently racist, etc. etc. etc. It didn't generate a whole lot of original ideas beyond "Start your own school!" ( )

I was looking forward to this book, because I had enjoyed Deborah Meier's earlier book. Unfortunately, the experience of both authors of the book These schools belong to you and me is so different from my experience in public schools that I keep thinking that they are writing about charter schools and private schools, not public schools. This confusion between reality in most public schools, espectially rural and inner city schools and the author's hopeful and unrealistic plans was upsetting to me. ( )

I am a person who is terribly worried about our schools. Maybe you are, too. I feel so strongly about the importance of public education in a democracy that I could have written the title of this book.

This author has many, many years of experience working in the schools of America. Early on, she worked in a small experimental school and the experience was life-changing. She draws on that time as well as many subsequent times in experimental schools to share what she has learned about schools that work. Some of the key ideas are deeply involving the families and communities in education; student-driven learning; authentic learning; democracy and equity. ( )

"In these cases, we taught them that they had the right to resist by withholding information about themselves that they thought might be used in a way that was not in their best interest. I regularly gave students the opportunity to practice this form of silent resistance to authority by explaining to them that they should not tell me (the authority in that case) anything that they didn't want me to share with their families or outside agencies because I had a responsibility as principal to exercise such judgment if I believed I could not legally or ethically keep what they told be to myself (p. 28 - 29, Meier and Gasoi)

I was horrified when I read this statement; the rest of the book became a blur because all I could think about was Deborah Meier's statement above. She is discussing how she addressed the possibility of one of her "black or brown" students interacting with police. Yet, her logic is so very flawed. A child learning how to deal with institutional racism does not mean they mistrust all authority, it means they must be educated on how to make judgment. A person can face abuse from possibly any member of society but this does not mean no one should be trusted because any member of society might also help them.

As a principal she is in a special position to be a person to help a children in need. By making this statement she basically cuts off this conversation by instilling fear of authority in her students. She forgets that police officers and government authority also help children. Children often lack the perspective to know when authorities should step in so it is imperative that they have many adults in their life that can make that decision for them. Children often fear the repercussion of telling because they don’t understand that not telling will be far worse than telling. Meier is putting the responsibility for handling situations that could run from simple fight between friends or a possible school shooting, on the child. This is far too much responsibility on a child’s shoulders. What she should have said and done is foster open communication with her students so that when they have a problem they feel comfortable talking with her and are secure in the knowledge that whatever she does in response is for their benefit.

I found this book to be a good example of the tyranny of democracy where minority’s voices are drowned out because the majority of the school feels differently. A good example of this is in Chapter 2 when Gasoi tells of a teacher, Angle, who felt compelled to leave because he didn’t follow Meier vision for the school. While Gasoi would say that the teachers made the decisions as a group, Meier’s influence is obvious. In fact I found Gasoi’s sections simple a worship session for how great she thought Meier is.

Also, I found their constant degradation of Trump and DeVoe off putting. If this book was written in 2016/2017 they have very little results in which to criticize. If they want to criticize anyone they should begin with Obama who had been President for the last eight years and then Bush who was President eight years before Obama.

Disappointing and disheartening are the two best ways to descript this book. ( )