William W. Cutler III, 2000
This 290-page monograph by Temple University education historian William W. Cutler III provides a history of the tug-of-war between parents and educators for dominance in U.S. K-12 education. It turns out to be quite an interesting saga, and Cutler does not shy from drawing contemporary lessons from it. "A cycle of failure will repeat," he predicts, "if the home and the school continue to follow their historical paths. What began as an adversarial relationship has come full circle; too often parents and teachers are ready to believe the worst about each other today. Breaking the cycle begins with the knowledge that families and schools are farther apart than ever before...." The ISBN is 0226132161. (The book came out in 2000, though we just discovered it.) The publisher is The University of Chicago Press, which can be found electronically at http://www.press.uchicago.edu and in reality at 5801 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637.
