School Is Dead

By Everett Reimer

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385026595
• ISBN13: 9780385026598
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

School out ?

To the same distance of the traditional idolatry about that partial critics reasoning or based in determined aspects , Everett Reimer brings nears us to radical conclusions :our monopolist education systems consist in institutions whose final goal is the intellectual and emotive slaving of the childhood and the systematic deformation of their members to a repressive universal discipline . The book values the educative systems since the consideration of its supposed finalities .Our actual conception of the education must be substituted for a plurality of radical options directed to the consecution of a real free society Besides thirty years have passed since its release , this book established an orange signal in the early seventies . This vital information must be read for any clever and sensate person , because somehow you are involved , believe or not with somebody , a friend , familiar , who actually is immersed in the educative process . And the smart alert goes in many directions . Very documented essay and carefully written .

Education vs. Schooling

This is a fascinating book by a colleague of Ivan Illich and John Holt. Many critics of modern schooling are attacked on the grounds that they point out the problems but offer no solutions. Reimer does both. He says that institutional schooling not only stifles real learning, it actually reinforces the class heirarchies and socioeconomic inequalities which most people assume better (or at least better-funded) schooling will rectify. He argues that the problems of modern schooling are inherent in its institutional setup, so no amount of funding can ever solve them. The only real way to save education is to divorce it from the institution and return it to parents, employers, community life, and individual initiative-- where it belongs. He proposes some intriguing alternatives to schooling in the form of individual educational accounts and subsidized educational resources (like libraries, only better). The only complaint I have about his approach is that he calls for radical decentralization of educational power, authority, and resources, and argues that the coercive nature of modern schooling is a large part of its problems-- and I agree-- but I do not think this is compatible with his proposal of government (taxpayer) subsidized educational accounts and resources. No matter how it starts out government funding would tend to re-centralize things over time, and requiring tax funding (coercive by nature) seems inconsistent with his anti-coercion views on everything else.The book raises many important questions and proposes some creative solutions. Read it with an open mind.

Why Schools Can't Work

Everett Reimer wrote a facinating important book about why schools can't work. He speaks only briefly about the problems schools have in educating students (we all already know that), but rather talks about the societal problems inherent in having institutional schools. He speaks about how schools give children an institutional mindset akin to what criminals get in prison. Everett also speaks to the gargantuan waste of money that occurs within the school systems, at our expense. Those who like the works of John Holt and John Taylor Gatto will find much to like her as well.Please, if you can, read this book with an open mind. It will really make you reconsider how you view childhood, education, and the effects of over programming our children.Most fascinating about this book? It was published in 1971! The problems with schools aren't new, they just getting more new coverage.