Education Is Upside-Down

Education Is Upside Down cuts through adjustments being made at technical levels of educational practice and accountability, challenging ideals and philosophies that have powered American Education for most of the last century. This book explains how and why long-standing approaches generate flawed instructional practices, flawed systemic reform efforts, and a fundamental misalignment between the educational institution and the society it is missioned to serve. Education Is Upside Down urges readers wishing to improve American Education to more carefully consider the institution’s central mission, challenge long-accepted truths of practice, and question current reform efforts and actions. In full, Education Is Upside Down resists the practitioner-vs.-reformer blame game, seeking ultimately to carefully untangle—not tighten by yanking on any single strand—the long-complicated knot of American Education.

Eric Kalenze's book is a valuable contribution to the education reform conversation. He argues persuasively that America's public schools need to get back to their fundamental mission of preparing young people for success in society as it is--not for some utopian future in which self-actualization is all that matters. Here's hoping this dose of reality permeates the "thoughtworld" of our education system., Our earliest thinkers about public education saw schools as indispensable institutions, endowing America’s children with common knowledge, practical skills, civic dispositions and habits.  We went to school to become Americans.  Today, Eric Kalenze correctly observes, schools exist to provide the whole development of each individual child.  The result is a kind of mission creep.  We are doing too many things and none of them well.  Current reform efforts are missing the mark badly, as did progressive education reform that preceded them.  Kalenze’s wise book Education Is Upside Down describes how American education lost its way and its founding purpose—and how we might get them back., In Education Is Upside Down, Eric Kalenze offers a provocative critique of today’s reform efforts. He argues that real transformation will require rethinking the larger purposes of education—that anything less will disappoint. This intriguing volume touches on educational philosophy, history, and some of the highlights of contemporary reform, while closing with a bracing call that we ask students themselves to share in the accountability we ask of educators., In this broad survey of education in America today, Eric Kalenze offers a refreshing diagnosis of what is wrong, why and when it happened, and what to do. He is equally adept at tracing the genesis of bad ideas 100 years back as he is at analyzing the heated debate over Common Core. The arguments are brisk, the prose limpid--an excellent primer for young educators looking to understand current conditions.

Eric Kalenze has fifteen-plus years of experience in education, including teaching, coaching/advising, administration, and developing content and curriculum in the private sector. He lives in Minnesota’s Twin Cities metro with his wife, two daughters, and one Puggle.