This post is a brief promo I wrote for Larry Cuban’s wonderful book, Confessions of a School Reformer, which was just published in Kappan. Here’s a link to the original. They ask Kappan authors to recommend a book in every issue and this was my contribution.
You’ll love this book!
David Labaree recommends Confessions of a School Reformer
Confessions of a School Reformer
By Larry Cuban (Harvard Education Press, 2021)
In this remarkable book, Larry Cuban provides rich insight into nearly a century of American school reform. In chapters that alternate between analysis and memoir, he draws on his long experience as a student, teacher, superintendent, and professor to explore both our persisting faith that schools can fix social problems and our continuing failure to move the needle very far in this direction.
Across his whole career, Cuban has been publishing powerful pieces about the history of pedagogical practice, the history of school reform, and the nature of school leadership. More than anyone I know, he has succeeded in bridging the yawning gap between school practitioners and education scholars — in large part because, more than anyone I know, he has such rich experience in both domains. This book brings together all the pieces of his career and of his thinking about education into a succinct and gorgeous synthesis.
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 