Democracy and the Arts of Schooling

Arnstine shows how schools have been distracted from education by reformers urging higher standards--the code word for higher test scores. But education is revealed in the dispositions a person has: sensitivity and resourcefulness, amiability and responsibility, taste, wit, and a disciplined intelligence. This book examines the conditions needed to foster dispositions like these, for they are not acquired by having the young spend more time studying standard academic subjects in preparation for competitive tests. Without recourse to esoteric jargon, Democracy and the Arts of Schooling shows why test scores are less significant than the quality of the experiences students have in school. When that quality is high--when it has the richness and the absorbing character we associate with the aesthetic--then learning takes place.