The Once and Future School: Three Hundred and Fifty Years of American Secondary Education

The Once and Future Schoolargues that to make sense of the current trials of secondary educational system and to maintain any sense of direction and vision for its future, we need a clear understanding of its path in the past and of its setting in a multi-national world. From their beginnings in colonial America to the present day, Jurgen Herbst traces the debates, discussions, pronouncements and reports through which Americans have sought to hammer out and clarify their conceptions of the goals and purposes of education beyond the common school. Herbst presents this history as an integral part and variant of a wider North Atlantic civilization. Distinguishing the American high school in the 19th century from its European counterparts--sites of learning for the elite and leisured classes--Herbst argues that the American secondary school was a "people's college," a truly democratic educational experiment. The American high school embraced the liberal historical and social principles upon whichour country was founded and became a place where the working-class, the immigrant, and the average student could excel and gain social and economic mobility. It is in examining our history, Herbst maintains, that we can go beyond the seemingly never-ending cries for change and reform and restore confidence in the viability of secondary education. In the concluding chapter, Herbst draws lessons from his study of the past and proposes the we replace schooling with education, and that we view the high school as only one among several institutions for the secondary education of American youth. The Once and Future Schoolspeaks to anyone interested in and concerned for the future of American education, most particularly legislators and school board members, parents, educators and students.