Education: Opposing Viewpoints

by Mary E. Williams (Editor)

Fulfills some or all of the national high school curriculum standards for social studies, English, science, and health.

Genres: Education

191 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Del Herman- OCPS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting anthology of different perspectives on issues in Education that those of us involved in the field ought to have some knowledge of. Debates explored included the state of American schools, teachers' unions, school choice, vouchers, religion and public education, evolution teaching in public schools, merit pay for teachers, and overall education funding. These essays are not as comprehensive as they could be, but the essays they do include undoubtedly provide a good starting point for thinking about issues in Education and education policy, some of them hot-button.

[David Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Education: Opposing Viewpoints attempts to cover the more controversial aspects of education from different perspectives and manages to include many topics: the overall state of education, vouchers, religion, standardized testing, funding, and home schooling. There are a few issues, like teachers' unions, that I would have liked to hear more about, but the book does a pretty good job in a relatively short amount of space. In addition, the book offers pre-reading questions and open-ended follow up questions for further discussion, both of which could be moderately helpful in a classroom setting.

The arguments often come down to the standard liberal and conservative points of view, though, not always. As I was reading, I made an earnest effort to judge each argument on its own merit and forget preconceived notions I may have had. As a liberal, however, I still found myself siding with the liberal points of view in most cases. Allowing the Ten Commandments in public schools and putting such a strong focus on standardized tests still seem like bad ideas to me.

But even so, I found some of the conservative arguments to be at least somewhat persuasive. Vouchers—at least for a while—seemed like they could be a good idea. Perhaps with some modification or at least more information, I could begin to support them. Even more compelling (or distressing) to me was the notion that liberal college professors often don't allow opposing viewpoints and, therefore, stifle true debate. I don't know the actual extent of this problem, but I do believe there is some truth to it. This is troubling to me because it seems that there are fewer and fewer places that real debate takes place, so college certainly needs to remain one of them.

And, of course, this brings me to the finest aspect of a book like this. The arguments may not have thoroughly addressed every detail and I still may not quite know where I stand on some of these issues, but almost every essay raised many questions for me. It got me thinking even more critically about what the real problems and solutions are for education. In other words, the book acts as a great starting point for delving further into the truly complex issues of education.