What to Look for in a Classroom: ...and Other Essays

Introduction ix

Part One: Classroom Mismanagement 1

1 The Limits of Teaching Skills 3

2 The Trouble with School Uniforms 8

3 Beyond Discipline 11

4 How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education 16

Part Two: American Ideology Goes to School 45

5 Resistance to Cooperative Learning: Making Sense of its Deletion and Dilution 47

6 “A Lot of Fat Kids Who Don’t Like to Read: The Effects of Pizza Hut’s Book It! Program and Other Reading Incentives 69

7 Grading: The Issue Is not How But Why 73

8 Grade Inflation and Other Red Herrings 82

9 Only for my Kid: How Privileged Parents Undermine School Reform 85

Part Three: Unquestioned Assumptions About Children 109

10 Suffer the Restless Children: Unsettling Questions About the ADHD Label 111

11 The Truth About Self-Esteem 135

12 Television and Children: ReViewing the Evidence 166

Part Four: Business as Usual 187

13 The Five-Hundred-Pound Gorilla 189

14 The False Premises of School Choice Plans 207

15 Students Don’t “Work” – They Learn 210

16 The Littlest Customers: TQM Goes to School 215

Part Five: Lessons Learned 225

17 Caring Kids: The Role of the Schools 227

18 Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide 249

19 What to Look for in a Classroom 277

Index 281

The Author 289