Keeping School: Letters to Families from Principals of Two Small Schools » (None)

Theordore R. Sizer, University Professor Emeritus at Brown Universtiy, is the chairman of the coalition of Essential Schools. He lives in Harvard, Massachusetts.

Education reformers Deborah Meier, Nancy Faust Sizer, and Theodore R. Sizer have published books that have literally helped shape a movement centered on small schools, community, and alternative visions of teaching and learning.

But as school principals, all three have also done another kind of writing, as well: short weekly essays in their schools’ newsletters to families. Sharp and accessible but intellectually ambitious, these little essays talk about everything from homework to discipline, from academic expectations to reading for pleasure.

Reflecting decades of practical wisdom, this collection of the best of their letters is an essential companion to books like Ted Sizer’s Horace’s Compromise, Ted and Nancy Sizer’s The Students Are Watching, and Deborah Meier’s The Power of Their Ideas.

Library Journal

Meier (In Schools We Trust), Theodore Sizer (founder, Coalition of Essential Schools), and Nancy Sizer (coauthor with Theodore Sizer of The Students Are Watching) have been teachers and school administrators writing about educational reform for years. Merging their theories with practice, the Sizers established and shared the principalship of a charter secondary school, while Meier founded and led a charter elementary school nearby. In this book, they present a collection of letters written to families of students at these schools. Written monthly as the school year unfolded, these letters represented the daily life of the school while illuminating the philosophies of the authors regarding learning, authority, community, testing, and standards. This collection tellingly reveals how these educators expressed their views to those outside their profession and how they encouraged parents to think about the process of their children's education. Recommended for public and academic libraries serving families and K-12 educators.-Jean Caspers, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, OR Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.