Teach the Best and Stomp the Rest

About the Book

This book is an experienced analysis of the failures of American schools to provide learning for a majority of its students including those known as the forgotten half—and the reasons for those failures. It explores who is being educated, and what is known about learning in terms of prerequisites, brain differences and cultures. The book describes the failed initiatives of more money, class size reduction, school choice, magnet schools, vouchers, and merit pay for teachers. Charter schools don’t cut it for a majority of our children. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race To the Top (RTT) are expensive, unmitigated disasters. The American schools have mostly missed the promise of change and technology and are now engaged in massive fallacious testing, resulting in little benefit to the nation and significant harm to the children. Outrageously priced Higher Education has little to offer to improve the national education malaise, and lumbers on in its dismal, disorderly state. However, American schools in their INNOCENCE are a product of and restricted by their governmental, economic, civic, and ecologic environment. As described in the closure of the book, The Future, the major structural changes needed to re-create our national learning system have overrun national planning and thinking capacity. Fortunately, there are promising patterns of change in progress.

About the Author

William C. Knaak was the founding superintendent of the 916 AVTI, an international leader in individualized, competency and computer-based education. The systems and instructional materials are still used broadly internationally. Dr. Knaak has been a high school teacher, superintendent, associate professor at the University of Minnesota, and a conference speaker on education, futurism and environment. He has been an international consultant in technical training, curriculum, and evaluation, working in Jamaica, Honduras, Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, People’s Republic of China, Jordan, Venezuela, Canada, Mexico, Tanzania and Korea and travelled informally in many other countries. He has authored two previous books and many professional articles. Dr. Knaak is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a PhD in Education. He has a rural Minnesota background, and is still a tree farmer. Jean T. Knaak has been a high school teacher and director of a 13 school district cooperative center. She is a small business owner and corporate president. She earned a PhD in Education from the University of Minnesota, and has been President of the 55,000 member American Vocational Association (now ACTE). Appointed by the U.S. President to the National Advisory Council on Vocational-Technical Education she served as Vice-Chair. Dr. Jean Knaak has organized and managed education and curriculum development projects in a number of countries including Honduras, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Jamaica, Mexico, and China. She has travelled informally in numerous other countries. She has served as an officer and conference leader for several professional organizations.