In Doomed To Fail, Paul A. Zoch Argues That What America Most Needs To Improve Its Schools Is Not Necessarily Better Teachers But A Wholesale Shift In The Way It Thinks About Who Or What Creates Academic Success. If We Continue To Look To Teachers To Produce Our Students' Achievement, He Maintains, We Can Continue To Expect Low Student Performance. It Is The Student From Whom We Must Demand More. Tracing The Development Of Educational Ideas In The United States From The Time Of William James To The Sophisticated Educational Thinkers Of The Present Day, Mr. Zoch Shows How Schools Have Adopted An Obsessive Focus On Teachers And Their Teaching Methods, Meanwhile Neglecting The Disciplined Effort And Hard Work That Students Must Expend In Order To Achieve. Picking Up On This Prevailing View Of Society, Most Students Now See Their Success As A Product Of What Their Teachers Do In Class. So They Devote Little Effort To Their Studies And, Predictably Enough, Learn Little. Their Dedication To Schoolwork, As Mr. Zoch Demonstrates, Falls Far Short Of That Routinely Displayed By Students In Other, Less Prosperous Countries.--jacket. William James And Pre-progressive Educational Thinking -- The Progressive Paradigm, Part One : Behaviorism And The Individualized Stimulus -- The Progressive Paradigm, Part Two : The Quest For Social And Individual Integration -- The Progressive Paradigm, Part Three : The Cult Of The Child -- The Revolving Revolution : Education After Behaviorism -- Pedagogue-centric Education : The Omnipotent/incompetent Teacher, The Irrelevant Student, And The Textbook Garbage -- Where Education Succeeds : The Absence Of The Progressive Paradigm In Japan -- What Is To Be Done? Paul A. Zoch. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 203-229) And Index.

Paul A. Zoch

Chicago: I.R. Dee

United States, United States of America

August 25, 2004

Chicago, 2004

xviii, 237 pages ; 23 cm
"In Doomed to Fail, Paul A. Zoch argues that what America most needs to improve its schools is not necessarily better teachers but a wholesale shift in the way it thinks about who or what creates academic success. If we continue to look to teachers to produce our students' achievement, he maintains, we can continue to expect low student performance. It is the student from whom we must demand more." "Tracing the development of educational ideas in the United States from the time of William James to the sophisticated educational thinkers of the present day, Mr. Zoch shows how schools have adopted an obsessive focus on teachers and their teaching methods, meanwhile neglecting the disciplined effort and hard work that students must expend in order to achieve. Picking up on this prevailing view of society, most students now see their success as a product of what their teachers do in class. So they devote little effort to their studies and, predictably enough, learn little. Their dedication to schoolwork, as Mr. Zoch demonstrates, falls far short of that routinely displayed by students in other, less prosperous countries."--Jacket
Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-229) and index
William James and pre-progressive educational thinking -- The progressive paradigm, part one : behaviorism and the individualized stimulus -- The progressive paradigm, part two : the quest for social and individual integration -- The progressive paradigm, part three : the cult of the child -- The revolving revolution : education after behaviorism -- Pedagogue-centric education : the omnipotent/incompetent teacher, the irrelevant student, and the "textbook garbage" -- Where education succeeds : the absence of the progressive paradigm in Japan -- What is to be done?

Since hardly anyone is happy with American schools, it's always open season for school reformwith inevitable calls for better teaching, better curriculums, better organization, etc., etc. In these continuing exhortations, little attention is paid to the role of the students themselves, the object of the "learning process." In this explosive book, Paul Zoch argues that what America most needs to improve its schools is not necessarily better teachers but a wholesale shift in the way it thinks about who or what creates academic success. The tendency to look to teachers for students' achievement, he maintains, is the cause of low performance. Tracing the development of educational ideas in the United States from the time of William James to the present day, Mr. Zoch shows how they have given the schools an obsessive focus on teachers and their teaching methods while neglecting the disciplined effort and hard work that students must expend in order to achieve. Because most students, in accordance with society's prevailing views, see their success as a product of what their teachers do, they devote little effort to their studies and, predictably enough, learn little. Their dedication to schoolwork, as Mr. Zoch demonstrates, falls far short of that routinely displayed by students in other, less prosperous countries. Doomed to Fail is one of the freshest and most compelling investigations of the plight of our schools to appear in many years. It is sure to create a beehive of controversy.

2023-06-28