PRESS RELEASE

The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch
6 x 9 inches | 466 pages
Paperback ISBN: 9781942146742
Hardcover ISBN: 9781942146759
Ebook ISBN: 9781942146766
Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Waterstones (more soon)

THE WISDOM AND WIT OF DIANE RAVITCH

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Education / Policy & Reform / Standards (Incl. Common Core) / Charter Schools
6 x 9 inches | 466 pages
$18.95 Paperback | $28.95 Hardcover | $9.95 eBook
Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Waterstones (more soon)

About the Book

Diane Ravitch is a lightning rod in American Society. She is a fearless defender of public education as the foundation stone of democracy. In this unique collection of her most important writings, Diane Ravitch provides remarkable insights into her seminal thinking on public education, and on the dangers to democracy of treating parents as consumers, students as products, and teachers as compliant followers of commercial scripts.

Diane’s unwavering support of public education has made her a national treasure. Public school teachers love her. In The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch she shines a light on their courage and endurance. She inspires them. But through her writing she also strikes fear into the hearts of all those – oligarchs, politicians, hedge fund financiers, and corporate reformers – who are intent on dismantling public schools and turning them into corporate money makers.

Similarly, through her pen, Diane confronts the detractors of public education and exposes the nefarious purposes of the Common Core, high stakes testing, and corporate reform. She names names – Bill Gates, Eva Moskowitz, Mark Zuckerberg, David Coleman, Charles and David Koch, and the Waltons.

Essentially, Diane has a most extraordinary talent for encouraging readers to inhabit what's happening in the texts that she is writing. We stand beside her and take up the challenge of resisting, persisting, and pushing down the risks to children whose public schools are in jeopardy and who are growing up in a democracy that is in peril. Her goal is to bring hope to all those educators who have been disrespected by plutocrats. In these writings, she does exactly that.

Endorsements and Reviews

“This book is a lively look at history as it unfolds, in the voice of the most reliable narrator of our time. Thanks to Diane for writing it.” – Anthony Cody, author of The Educator and the Oligarch

“In an age when almost everybody has an opinion about schools, Ravitch’s name must be somewhere near the top of the Rolodex of every serious education journalist in this country.” – The Nation

“Diane’s record of scholarship and activism sets a powerful example for us to get involved and stay involved until the fight is won.” – Yohuru R. Williams, Professor of History, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota

“This book gives us hope that the dream of a great American school system is alive and well and will not end no matter how choppy the waters become.” – Nancy Bailey, Nancy Bailey’s Education Website

“Wisdom and Wit collects an album of tree images, sharp and clear and close up, with the full forest in the background. It's a great introduction to some of the issues over the last decade for people who have not been paying close attention, and it's a strong, sharp reminder of some of the specific battles even if you have been paying attention.” – Peter Greene, Curmudgucation

 “Ms. Ravitch [is] the country’s soberest, most history-minded education expert.” – Wall Street Journal

“This new book is more personal than anything I’ve seen from Ravitch on the shelves before. These are flashes of inspiration, snippets of thoughts, bursts of criticism and humor. They’re perfect for perusing and really quite addictive.” – Steven Singer, author of Gadfly On the Wall: A Public School Teacher Speaks Out on Racism and Reform

“Ms. Ravitch…writes with enormous authority and common sense.” – New York Times

“Diane is a warrior of ideas who has stood courageously against lavishly financed purveyors of reactionary ideologies… This book is a compilation of a decade of her winning arguments that have gone far toward stemming the tide of the theft of America’s public schools. Billionaires call it reform.” – Thomas Ultican, tultican.com