I IAP Home : Education Products : Monographs : Book  
Fertilizers, Pills & Magnetic Strips
The Fate of Public Education in America



Gene V Glass, Arizona State Univsersity
ORDER ONLINE
Paperback $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-59311-892-1
Hardcover $73.99
ISBN: 978-1-59311-893-8
We use Paypal for online orders. Click here for more information about ordering from IAP.

RELATED CATEGORIES
> Policy & Politics of Education

MORE INFORMATION
> Read the author's blog
> Podcast of the author's appearance discussing this book on Barry Lynn's "Culture Shocks" radio show, May 29, 2008
2008.
Search inside this book:
Google Book Search
"We shape our tools and then they shape us." With these words, Kenneth Boulding captured one of the great truths of the modern world. In Fertilizers, Pills, and Magnetic Strips, Gene V Glass analyzes how a few key technological inventions changed culture in America and how public education has changed as a result. Driving these changes are material self-interest and the desire for comfort and security, both of which have transformed American culture into a hyper-consuming, xenophobic society that is systematically degrading public education.

Glass shows how the central education policy debates at the start of the 21st century (vouchers, charter schools, tax credits, high-stakes testing, bilingual education) are actually about two underlying issues: how can the costs of public education be cut, and how can the education of the White middle-class be "quasi-privatized" at public expense? Working from the demographic realities of the past thirty years, he projects a challenging and disturbing future for public education in America.

REVIEWS:
"All readers, whatever their political views, will find much to stimulate their thinking in this book. Its breadth and scope, the variety of data explored, and the stark nature of the argument will provoke both thought and emotion. As he has done throughout his career, Gene Glass once again helps us think more clearly about important issues in education." ~ Ben Levin, University of Toronto.

"This is the first credible book of the 21st century to anticipate the
future of public education." ~ David C. Berliner, Former President of the American Educational Research Association; Author of The Manufactured Crisis

"...a wake up call to America about the disastrous consequences of current policies that shortchange the education of the coming majority "Latinos and other 'minority' students" on whom the very future of the nation rests." ~ Patricia Gándara, University of California, Los Angeles; Co-Director, The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles

"The book makes such impressive sense that one has to believe that its
clarity, command of the facts, eye for absurdity, and concern for justice
will garner greater support for public education as a common and noble
cause." ~ John Willinsky, Stanford University; Author of Learning to Divide the World

"This is the most original book about education in years." ~ Ernest R. House, University of Colorado, Boulder; Harold E. Lasswell Award Recipient