The Students Are Watching: Schools and the Moral Contract - Hardcover

Sizer, Theodore R.; Sizer, Nancy Faust

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807031208 ISBN 13: 9780807031209

Publisher: Beacon Pr, 1999

Synopsis

Students learn not just from their classe but from their school's routines and rituals, especially about matters of character, Theodore and Nancy Sizer insist in this groundbreaking book. They convince us once again of what we may have forgotten: We need to create schools that constantly demonstrate a belief in their students. In such schools, children will not only meet important academic goals, but also acquire good intellectual habits and develop their own moral agency. Only then will students go on to make wise and principled decisions--even when their teachers are no longer watching.

About this title

Review:

Written by Theodore and Nancy Sizer, coprincipals of a high school and veterans in the field of education (he was named dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education at age 32, she trains teachers in the same program), The Students Are Watching is a gentle but tough-minded plea for resetting the moral compass of American education and creating academic institutions "which will nurture our humanity." In high schools, which the authors call "one of America's most ubiquitous intentional communities," teachers and administrations can choose to model values they believe in, or they can slip into the same lazy strategies used by their students to avoid work and responsibility. "They watch us all the time," warn the Sizers, who believe in the profound power of the school system to change children's lives, and offer a wealth of ideas for educators and other adults to create the culture of trust and respect that will change their charges for the better. --Maria Dolan

About the Author:

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Beacon Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0807031208
• ISBN 13: 9780807031209
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 133