The Flat World and Education- Book Review

Book Review

The Flat World and Education

Linda Darling- Hammond c.2010 Teachers College Press

Linda Darling Hammond has been and advocate for inner city school children every since she received her Ed.D   in Urban Education from Temple University in 1978. She is cut from the same cloth and-Jonathan Kozol and Diane Ravitch.  In the Flat World and Education, Darling-Hammond sets out provide the reader with statistical data   illustrating what most educators already know.  Public schools in this country are unequal and inner city school children are at a great disadvantage because of their school’ physical plant, the lack of concern from administrators and the poor preparation of the teachers who teach them every day.  There is this long standing inequality in the America’s classrooms that places minority students at a disadvantage from day one.

Darling- Hammond charges the reader with building an infrastructure in our teachers colleges that will produce quality teachers who are capable of being successful with ALL students.  She discusses the importance of school and teacher preparation colleges to work together.  She further believes that No Child Left Behind needs to be revamped and I certainly concur with the analysis.  The way that we assess student learning  needs to be retooled as the way students are assess is a byproduct of how they are taught.

“We believe in the importance of preparing students to live and success in a global economy. We don’t think that the mastery of basic skills is sufficient for this goal. What we need is an education system that teachers deep knowledge, that values creativity and originality and that values thing. This unfortunately is not the path on which we are now embarked.” (Diane Ravitch as quoted in The Flat World and Education p.282)

Darling-Hammond also reviews the topics of teacher pay, tenure laws, and the importance of true professional development. The is book is more of a scholarly work rather than a Jonathan Kozol work like Savage Inequalities  which was written for more mass appeal.  While it would appear that the author here is preaching to the choir and that she has resurrected ideas that have been around for a while, it is critical to keep the concerns of under served student populations on the front burner in any way possible. The author offers a myriad of suggestions of improvement in the classroom and in teacher preparation institutions

Linda Darling Hammond was an education advisor to Barak Obama during his election campaign. She is the author of 12 books and over 300 articles. She is the Charles E. Ducommon Professor of Education at Stanford University College of Education. Dr. Darling- Hammond launched the School Redesign Network and has been involved in the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.