Forgotten Heroes of American Education: The Great Tradition of Teaching Teachers.

Forgotten Heroes of American Education: The Great Tradition of Teaching Teachers. Edited by J. Wesley Null and Diane Ravitch (Information Age Publishing).

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In the foreword to Forgotten Heroes Diane Ravitch explains, "When I was a graduate student in the early 1970s, working toward a doctorate in the history of education at Teachers College, I never encountered the names or ideas of William Chandler Bagley or Isaac Kandel. Instead, I imbibed ... a partial history of our nation's educational efforts, based on the view that American education was and always would be American progressivism writ large." In this compendium, Ravitch and J. Wesley Null set out to rectify that state of affairs. In an impressive collection of writings that span the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, they portray a view of American education thought that is fundamentally different from that often encountered in the nation's leading schools of education. Covering topics including student discipline, teacher education, curriculum, the influence of John Dewey, the science of education, and the purpose of schooling, the essays capture a compelling but often overlooked body of thought that resisted the tenets of progressivism and faddism. The editors augment each selection with a brief introduction to the author and a helpful discussion of the essay, enabling the novice as well as the historian to negotiate this valuable collection.