Publishers Weekly
05/11/2020
DeBoer, an academic assessment manager at Brooklyn College, indicts America’s education system and the capitalist meritocracy it undergirds in this provocative yet muddled debut. Public schools don’t ensure equality of opportunity or outcomes, deBoer explains, because they reward the talented few and punish the less academically gifted. Yet genetic inheritance largely determines intelligence, deBoer contends, meaning that “different students have profoundly different levels of underlying ability.” Until educators acknowledge this range of cognitive potential and reframe classroom methods accordingly, he writes, Americans will be poorly served by reforms, such as charter schools and standardized testing, that blame teachers for student failure, and by the bipartisan consensus that education is the “great economic leveler.” DeBoer hedges against the risk of racial bias by insisting that he’s talking about “individual differences, not group differences” when it comes to intelligence levels, but his analysis of the supporting evidence is shallow, and his policy suggestions, including universal health care and free college, have more to do with “remak society from top to bottom” than fixing the specific problem of how to teach to varying cognitive abilities. Still, this passionate plea to reconsider “what it means to be a worthwhile person” gives policymakers and educators much to think about. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
"There’s a mystery at the heart of American life: Why has education—the great liberal equalizer—failed to deliver equality? In deBoer’s searing indictment of our modern meritocracy, he rightly observes that the usual explanations don’t add up—and that they crucially shift blame from a society that makes lesser intelligence a veritable death sentence onto schools, teachers, and families."
—Elizabeth Bruenig, New York Times Opinion Writer
"George Orwell once wrote that among his gifts was ‘a power of facing unpleasant facts.’ Fredrik deBoer also has that power, in spades. The first unpleasant fact he forces us to confront is: We do not all have the same level of academic ability. And the second is: Such differences do not reduce our responsibility to address the profound inequities of our educational system. This is a cogent, beautifully written, and radically challenging book. It has made me profoundly uncomfortable."
—Alan Jacobs, author of Breaking Bread with the Dead
"In a moment where intellectual 'independence' often functions as a personal-branding nostrum or cover for reactionary impieties, Freddie deBoer stands out as the genuine article—deliberate, wide-ranging, lionhearted, and invariably worth reading. This book is not only an important contribution to our educational debates, but an altogether discomfiting look at our fetish for meritocracy."
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A Sense of Direction
"Provocative...this passionate plea to reconsider 'what it means to be a worthwhile person' gives policymakers and educators much to think about."
—Publishers Weekly
"deBoer has written a book about education that is radical and undaunted in every possible way, from its politics to its tone. I wish I’d had it in my arsenal when I dropped out of high school."
—Molly Young, Vulture
"In deBoer’s plain-spoken Marxism there is much to disagree with, but it is the sort of disagreement that leads to greater clarity, and the book is a—if he would not mind me saying so—smart contribution that should shed light on what we value, and how."
—Patrick T. Brown, National Review
"Mr. deBoer’s book deserves attention for the way in which the author honestly faces one of modern liberalism’s great inanities and addresses it using only the tenets of the political left. It is an extraordinary effort."
—Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal
"deBoer has critically pondered who we are, what diversity means in education, what education means for learners as individuals, and how improvements in education and society can be brought to fruition...an excellent read whose solutions should be given deep consideration for implementation."
—Kim Petersen, Dissident Voice
Library Journal
06/01/2020
In his first book, acclaimed progressive essayist deBoer shares his uniquely informed insights into America's education system, including what works and what is broken. Growing up in an academic family and eventually joining academia himself, deBoer asserts that schools are "engines of inequality" whose purpose is to feed graduates into a "system of meritocratic capitalism." One repeated criticism is that schools fail to acknowledge variances in students' cognitive abilities. The author provides a thorough review of topics that may (or may not) contribute to academic success, such as school quality and choice, race and ethnicity, the home environment, and genetics. Additionally, he describes education research and funding and previous attempts to overhaul the education system, as well as plenty of opportunities for possible reform, not all of which are related to education. The book is unapologetically left-leaning and reads like an essay, yet all statistics and claims shared are supported by credible sources and case studies for those wishing to dig further. VERDICT A solid addition for those dismayed by the inequities of the education system and looking to effect change.—Jennifer Clifton, Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis
