Seymour Sarason, in the words of Carl Glickman, is 'one of America's seminal thinkers about public education'. For over four decades his has been a voice of much-needed skepticism about our plans for school reform, teacher training, and educational psychology. Now, for the first time, Sarason's essential writings on these and other issues are collected together, offering student and researcher alike with the range, depth, and originality of Sarason's contributions to American thinking on schooling. As we go from debate to debate on issues such as school choice, charter schools, inclusive education, national standards, and other problems that seem to drag on without solution, Sarason's critical stance on the folly of many of our attempts to fix schools has always had at the center a concern for the main players in our educational institutions: the students, the teachers and the parents.Any plans that cannot account for their well-being are doomed to failure. And in the face of such failure, the clarity of Sarason's vision for real educational success is a much-needed antidote to much of the rhetoric that currently passes for substantial debate.
A wide-ranging and comprehensive selection of Sarason's most significant writings, "The Skeptical Visionary" should find a prized space on any student's or teacher's bookshelf. Author note: Robert Fried is Associate Professor in the School of Education at Northeastern University, and is the author of "The Passionate Teacher: A Practical Guide" and "The Passionate Learner: How Teachers and Parents Can Help Children Reclaim the Joy of Discovery". Seymour Sarason is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. He is the author of over forty books and is considered to be one of the most significant researchers in education and educational psychology in the country.