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Sacred Trust
Foreword by Rudy Crew
Peter Cookson asserts that all children have the right to an excellent education, and provides steps for creating an action plan that will lead to equitable schools.
- Grade Level: PreK-12, Elementary, Secondary
- ISBN: 9781412981163
- Published By: Corwin
- Year: 2011
- Page Count: 160
- Publication date: May 10, 2011
Price: $39.95
For Instructors
When you select 'request review copy', you will be redirected to Sage Publishing (our parent site) to process your request.
Description
"Sacred Trust: A Children's Education Bill of Rights is a clarion call to action for all Americans who care deeply about children and public education. Peter Cookson cuts through the endless policy debates and presents a positive plan for building 21st century public schools for all children."
—Richard W. Riley, Former U. S. Secretary of Education
Senior Partner, EducationCounsel, LLC, Washington, DC
"Peter Cookson's vision for a truly inclusive and quality public school system could not come at a better time. As many of our children are struggling, we need a national vision and a genuine sense of hope. Sacred Trust is a caring, yet uncompromising wake-up call to honor and support public education."
—Ramon C. Cortines, Former Superintendent
Los Angeles Unified School District, CA
All students have the right to an excellent education
Policy expert Peter W. Cookson, Jr. boldly describes a proposed education bill of rights for American students, including ideas on how to restructure the United States Department of Education for greater equity and improved academic achievement for all learners. School leaders will find a national blueprint of action that has been endorsed by major political, economic, and educational leaders. The book asserts that all children have the right to:
- Attend a school that is funded for 21st-century excellence
- Develop individual learning styles to the optimal extent
- Have their heritages honored and incorporated into study
Included are examples illustrate problems and solutions from a wide range of public and private schools in rural, urban, and suburban areas. Through vivid storytelling and relevant research, Cookson provides specific and innovative steps for creating a concrete action plan that will lead to just, equitable, and world-class schools.
Key features
Features and Benefits:
- Draws on evidence from the literature and illustrative storytelling to not only highlight problems in our schools, but to make the case for instituting a bold policy—an education bill of rights
- Presents examples of issues and solutions from all types of schools—private and public; rural, urban, suburban
- Offers chapters on basic justice, unity in diversity, authentic 21st century teaching and learning, emancipatory education, and educational justice
- Provides Book Study Questions designed to provoke thought and ignite dialogue
- Each chapter offers Possible Action Steps that educators can implement in their schools to bring about more equity and improve the academic achievement of all students
- Includes an entire chapter devoted to implementing the action plan of the education bill of rights with ideas on how to restructure the federal Department of Education.
- Offers a national blueprint for action which has already been endorsed by major political, economic, and educational constituencies
Author(s)
Peter W. Cookson, Jr.
Peter went on to teach social studies at a large rural public school and history and Latin at a private day school. He returned to NYU to receive a Ph.D. in the Sociology of Education and continued on with a postgraduate certificate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an M.A. from the Yale Divinity School.
He has taught and held leadership positions at several leading colleges and universities, including Teachers College, Columbia University, where he currently teaches the Sociology of Urban Education. He also currently works with schools around the country as the founder of a Washington, D.C. based consulting firm, Ideas without Borders.
Throughout his career he has written, lectured, debated, and researched extensively on the democratic importance of equality of educational opportunity, 21st century learning, and educational innovation. Some of his works include Preparing for Power: America’s Elite Boarding Schools, co-authored with Caroline Hodges Persell (1985); School Choice and the Struggle for the Soul of American Education (1994); Expect Miracles: Charter Schools and the Politics of Hope and Despair, co-authored with Kristina Berger (2002); and his latest book, Sacred Trust: A Children’s Education Bill of Rights (2011). He is completing another book to be published in 2012, The Great Unequalizer: Class and American Education.
Peter’s wife, Susan, worked for many years as a family therapist and is now a professional artist. They have two children and four grandchildren.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Introduction: A Measure of Our Soul
Chapter One: The Power of People and the Purpose of Public Education
All Children Dream
Educationally Experimenting on the Poor
Madison was Right: A New Policy Framework
Turning Dreams into Reality
The Obtainable Utopia
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Chapter Two: The Right to a Safe, Healthy, World-Class Pubic School
Right Number 1: The right to a neighborhood public school or a public school of choice that is funded for excellence
The Great Unequalizer
Getting to the Real Issues
Money---Spent Wisely---Does Matter
Reclaiming Horace's Dream
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Right Number 2: The right to physical and emotional health and safety
Do No Harm: The First Obligation
Basic Justice Requires Basic Care
Health and Social Health
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Readings
Chapter Three: The Cultural and Individual Rights of Students
Right Number 3: The right to have his or her heritage, background, and religious differences honored, incorporated in study, and celebrated in the culture of the school
Unity Within Diversity
The Open Mind and the Open Society
The Empathic Civilization
The Classroom Is the World
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Right Number 4: The right to develop learning styles and strategies to the greatest extent possible
Doubt and Its Virtues
The Mismatch Between Research and Practice
Maximizing Children's Talent Through Individualization
Inquiry as a Way of Life
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Chapter Four: The Right to High Quality Instruction and School Leadership
Right Number 5: The right to an excellent and dedicated teacher
Why Don't We Ask the Teachers?
Elevating Teaching
Practical Idealism Works
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Right Number 6: The right to a school leader with vision and educational expertise
Leadership for 21st-Century Schools
National Educational Leadership
A School Without Vision Is Lost
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Chapter Five: The Right to World-Class 21st-Century Curriculum and Technology
Right Number 7: The right to a curriculum based on relevance, depth, and flexibility
Boredom--The Lucky Two Percent
Virtual Socrates
Eradicating Boredom
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Right Number 8: The right of access to the most powerful educational technologies
Learning in the Electronic Era
Why a Right to 21st-Century Communication Technologies?
Technology, Technopoly, and Cyber Sanity
What Would Socrates Say?
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Chapter Six: The Right to Equality of Educational Opportunity
Right Number 9: The right to fair, relevant, and learner-based evaluations
In the Belly of the Beast
Why a Right to Fair Evaluation?
The Einstein Factor, the Picasso Possibility, and the Sanctity of Natural Genius
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Right Number 10: The right to complete high school
The Tragic Consequences of Educational Neglect
Why a Right to Graduate?
What Would the Founders Say?
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Chapter Seven: The Right to Good Government
21st-Century Government and a "Sense of the People"
A New Department of Education---A National "Seminary of Learning"
Organizing for Learning
The Dream Recaptured
Book Study Questions
Possible Action Steps
Suggested Further Reading
Resource 1: The Historic Issue of Equity and Excellence
Resource 2: The Virginia Declaration of Rights
Resource 3: Education and the Peace Dividend
Resource 4: Principles of Multicultural Education
References
Index
Reviews
"Some of the ideas in this motivating book really push the envelope. I love the idea of establishing an educational trust fund for every American child! Wow, can you imagine how amazing this would be if it really came to fruition?"
Brigitte Tennis, Teacher"Some of the ideas in this motivating book really push the envelope. I love the idea of establishing an educational trust fund for every American child! Wow, can you imagine how amazing this would be if it really came to fruition?"
Stella Schola Middle School, Redmond, WA
"This book will be very helpful for future K–12 administrators as they attempt to understand the underlying dynamics of future trends and educational demands. It provides educators with a solid philosophy and personal plan of action for addressing these issues in their own community."
Bernardo J. Carducci, Director, Shyness Research Institute"This book will be very helpful for future K–12 administrators as they attempt to understand the underlying dynamics of future trends and educational demands. It provides educators with a solid philosophy and personal plan of action for addressing these issues in their own community."
Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN
"This book approaches the problems of education in a positive way by relating how to solve those problems through the consideration of the rights of children. The author’s list of rights is refreshing and different from other lists that have been published. I wholeheartedly recommend this book for all educators and anyone who has a stake in education."
Karen L. Canfield, Principal"This book approaches the problems of education in a positive way by relating how to solve those problems through the consideration of the rights of children. The author’s list of rights is refreshing and different from other lists that have been published. I wholeheartedly recommend this book for all educators and anyone who has a stake in education."
Pioneer Intermediate School, Noble, OK
"Sacred Trust: A Children’s Education Bill of Rights is a clarion call to action for all Americans who care deeply about children and public education. Peter Cookson cuts through the endless policy debates and presents a positive plan for building 21st century public schools for all children."
Richard W. Riley, Former U. S. Secretary of Education"Sacred Trust: A Children’s Education Bill of Rights is a clarion call to action for all Americans who care deeply about children and public education. Peter Cookson cuts through the endless policy debates and presents a positive plan for building 21st century public schools for all children."
Senior Partner, EducationCounsel, LLC, Washington, DC
"In Sacred Trust: A Children’s Education Bill of Rights, Peter Cookson provides a road map for developing every child’s greatest abilities and private hopes and dreams. With his proposed ten rights, plus the added right to good government, he provides a compact that if fulfilled will save our species from self-inflicted extinction. All educators, policy makers, and parents should treasure this book for its robust guidance on how we can benefit everyone by achieving this essential Bill of Rights."
Gardner P. Dunnan, Academic Dean"In Sacred Trust: A Children’s Education Bill of Rights, Peter Cookson provides a road map for developing every child’s greatest abilities and private hopes and dreams. With his proposed ten rights, plus the added right to good government, he provides a compact that if fulfilled will save our species from self-inflicted extinction. All educators, policy makers, and parents should treasure this book for its robust guidance on how we can benefit everyone by achieving this essential Bill of Rights."
Avenues: The World School, New York, NY
"Peter Cookson's vision for a truly inclusive and quality public school system could not come at a better time. As many of our children are struggling, we need a national vision and a genuine sense of hope. Sacred Trust is a caring, yet uncompromising wake-up call to honor and support public education."
Ramon C. Cortines, Former Superintendent"Peter Cookson's vision for a truly inclusive and quality public school system could not come at a better time. As many of our children are struggling, we need a national vision and a genuine sense of hope. Sacred Trust is a caring, yet uncompromising wake-up call to honor and support public education."
Los Angeles Unified School District, CA
"Peter Cookson elegantly parses language in a manner which speaks convincingly to the heart of an idealist and the mind of a pragmatist. His passionate and urgent plea for a 'Children's Education Bill of Rights' provides a reform blueprint with, through and for schoolchildren and youth in our country. This book is must reading for all interested in empowering more citizens to gain the promise of America."Eric J. Cooper, President and Founder
National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, Syosset, NY
"This book is both succinct and comprehensive, well-documented and objective, but full of a pregnant sense of outrage, powerful and commanding. The message is that it is time to stop talking and start solving our education problem."James P. Comer, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry
Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT
"Brimming with ideas, inspiration, and important questions, Sacred Trust could be the cornerstone for ongoing debate and action aimed at creating the schools we need for children in this century. Peter Cookson is an eloquent writer whose educational insight and wisdom warrants close attention."Caroline Hodges Persell, Professor of Sociology
New York University
“Sacred Trust bristles with passion and imagination. Peter Cookson makes a forceful argument that the human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness articulated in the Declaration of Independence demand an education which cultivates the whole person."
Aaron M. Pallas, Professor of Sociology and Education“Sacred Trust bristles with passion and imagination. Peter Cookson makes a forceful argument that the human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness articulated in the Declaration of Independence demand an education which cultivates the whole person."
Teachers College, Columbia University, NY
"Peter Cookson understands, as did our founding fathers, that a first-class education is necessary for national cohesion. In many ways, it is our nation’s best defense. With his Children's Education Bill of Rights, he lays out the principles that should guide the stewardship of all our children."
David C. Berliner, Regents' Professor Emeritus"Peter Cookson understands, as did our founding fathers, that a first-class education is necessary for national cohesion. In many ways, it is our nation’s best defense. With his Children's Education Bill of Rights, he lays out the principles that should guide the stewardship of all our children."
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
"Outlines the types of education all American kids should have a right to enjoy and covers problems and solutions to achieving this uniform goals. Makes a fine action plan for all schools to consider."James A. Cox, Editor in Chief
The Midwest Book Review, August 2011
Other Titles in: Administration & Leadership | Policy & Planning | School Change, Reform, & Restructuring
For Instructors
When you select 'request review copy', you will be redirected to Sage Publishing (our parent site) to process your request.