America's Teachers: An Introduction to Education (5th Edition)

Joseph Newman's America's Teachers takes a practical, non-sugar-coated, unbiased look at the teaching profession. The book includes where the profession is, how it got there, and what new teachers can expect for the future. First, Newman considers the reasons people choose to become teachers. He admits that some of these reasons are not the best. Then he examines expected salaries and alternative methods for paying teachers (i.e. merit pay). He also looks at alternative routes to the profession due to complaints that education professors are out of touch with elementary and secondary schools.

Other subjects examined are teacher's unions, court rulings affecting teacher's rights, and the history of teaching reforms. The four philosophies of education (idealism, realism, pragmatism, and existentialism) are described in a factual way that allows the reader to decide which (if any) are useful. The same impartial attention is paid to the different theories on education including perennialism, the Paideia Proposal, essentialism (back to basics), changes in curriculum, and the public v. private school debate. This book covers the bases in a fair and thorough manner and is an excellent introduction for students.

I am a university professor and dean of education. I used Dr. Newman's book during the spring 1998 semester in my Introduction to American Education course. My students enjoyed the easy reading and the manner in which Dr. Newman presented the material.

The book is quite up-to-date and deals with current and historical educational issues in an honest and up-front manner.

I highly recommend this book to anyone teaching an introduction to education course.

The one drawback is the quality of the supporting materials. The teacher's guide is not well constructed and at the time I used the text, no test back or items were available.