Each of the seven illustrated units focuses on one area. Provided are 50 reproducible worksheets, a handy teacher's guide, progress chart, and more. Read more
In this provocative new book, sociologist Orlando Patterson takes on the intractable dilemma of race in late 20th-century America. Using current demographic research, Patterson exposes common misperceptions about the lives and experiences of black and white Americans, misperceptions that are hampering the success of integration.A professor at Harvard, Orlando Patterson has been called a radical by conservatives and a conservative by radicals. His tendency, he notes in his introduction, is "not to care where my ideas originated--as long as they strike me as sound--or where the chips fall as a result of what I write or say." The Ordeal of Integration is what Patterson calls a work of economic sociology. He looks at the "remarkable facts of" black progress, refuting the notion that black America is in dire crisis. He then considers how liberals, conservatives, and those who espouse the "hereditarian or genetic" view discuss race in the United States. Throughout, Patterson calls for a return to common sense in discussions of race. Read more
In this short and powerful book, celebrated philosopher Martha Nussbaum makes a passionate case for the importance of the liberal arts at all levels of education.
Historically, the humanities have been central to education because they have rightly been seen as essential for creating competent democratic citizens. But recently, Nussbaum argues, thinking about the aims of education has gone disturbingly awry both in the United States and abroad. Anxiously focused on national economic growth, we increasingly treat education as though its primary goal were to teach students to be economically productive rather than to think critically and become knowledgeable and empathetic citizens. This shortsighted focus on profitable skills has eroded our ability to criticize authority, reduced our sympathy with the marginalized and different, and damaged our competence to deal with complex global problems. And the loss of these basic capacities jeopardizes the health of democracies and the hope of a decent world.
In response to this dire situation, Nussbaum argues that we must resist efforts to reduce education to a tool of the gross national product. Rather, we must work to reconnect education to the humanities in order to give students the capacity to be true democratic citizens of their countries and the world.
Drawing on the stories of troubling--and hopeful--educational developments from around the world, Nussbaum offers a manifesto that should be a rallying cry for anyone who cares about the deepest purposes of education.
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