City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education.

"Education is a double-edged sword: it can be used to oppress or to liberate" (Bertold Brecht, German philosopher and playwright).

Pedro Noguera cites this quote rather late in City Schools and the American Dream, but he illustrates examples of Brecht's concept throughout this work. Noguera, an urban sociologist and a professor at New York University, is an experienced inner-city educator who has spent time as a classroom teacher and school board member in Berkeley, Calif.

As a product of a city-school education himself, the author points out that while effort in school is an important factor in individual success, for those who are born poor, effort itself does not guarantee success. Children don't select their parents, the neighborhoods they grow up in or the school they attend.

Noguera describes students he knew who tried hard to succeed in school, but because of a lack of opportunity or luck, their dreams never materialized. Under present working conditions, he says, "academic failure for large numbers of poor and working-class children is inevitable." That is a sad, even frightening conclusion.

What might be done to assist students where segregation by social class as well as race continues nearly 50 years after the Brown decision? The author believes American society must provide the resources to support urban schools, though he is encouraged by grassroots community-building activities to improve education for poor children.

Noguera argues this country has plenty of resources to support successful city schools. Entire cities, he says, should not be written off as "no-man lands."

(City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education by Pedro Noguera, Teachers College Press, New York, N.Y., 2003, 187 pp., with index, $19.95 softcover)

William James Leary

Professor of Education, Lynn University, Boca Raton, Fla.