Teaching and Schooling in America: Pre-and Post-September 11 examines 2,500 years of historical, philosophical, and educational thought, forcing the reader to think and rethink the issues of schooling and society.

This text is concerned with life and death, peace and war, good and evil, miseducation and education, achievement and aptitude, and equality and inequality. It begins with the ancient Greeks and Romans and ends with a post-September 11 society, including American, Chinese, Indian, and Arabic cultures. At the level of society, specific topics deal with religion, morality, justice, colonialism, global poverty, the horrors of the 20th century—war, death camps, and racial/ethnic hatred—and now the new century with terrorism and cloning.

At the educational level, the focus is on race, gender, class, social stratification, school finance, black/white achievement gaps, affirmative action, quotas, reparations, computers, satellite communications, and global education and understanding. The nature of the subject matter is controversial and the prose written in a critical, honest, and passionate style.