Responding to Sara Mead's EduMeme, in which she got the ball rolling by asking questions about education-related books. I don't know how to break off the text into the nice blocks that Sara has, so let's kick this old school (is that the proper use of the phrase?)

1. Books that influenced my thinking about education: (Note: I'm not a pedagogue, nor do I play one on TV, so my answers here will give you a good idea of what angles interest me.)

So many to list... Anything by Paul Hill, especially stuff like Reinventing Public Education, and Fixing Urban Schools. Anything by Diane Ravitch, especially The Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools, and Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms. Two books with Larry Cuban connections: Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform (with David Tyack), and Powerful Reforms with Shallow Roots (with Mike Usdan, one of my favorite dudes ever.) Actually, just about anything with a Larry Cuban connection. When I worked in Milwaukee in the 1990's, the book Seeds of Crisis brought me up-to-speed on the historical micro issues there. (If I recall correctly, one of the chapters inferred a relationship between student achievement and the ability to tell the difference between teacher and student dress in yearbook photos, i.e. the hippie years and ACT scores -- BRILLIANT!!))

2. Which education-related book is way over-hyped?

Anything by Jonathan Kozol. I used to love his stuff back when he was just a regular guy trying to get people to pay attention to important issues. Or as a friend sometimes says: I loved Jonathan Kozol back when he was still Jonathan Kozol.

3. Which edubook should people pay more attention to/read.

This one. Seriously, lately I have been suggesting to friends that they read two books written by people who were in the trenches for the teacher wars (wars between fledgling unions and their districts, and wars between the NEA and AFT.) Both are fascinating, and in many ways make the case about both the promise of teacher unions, but also the structural flaws that prevent them from really being a part of the solution.

Former NEA exec director Don Cameron, for example, explains in The Inside Story of the Teacher Revolution in America why the NEA is structurally incapable of being anything but opposed to any school reform that comes down the pike (the downside of the union's democratic structure and the executive committee's power base.) ("While the debates about various education-reform proposals raged, NEA usually raised objections or pooh-poohed many reform proposals. NEA's lack of a positive contribution to the debate was glaringly noticeable, and the organization suffered a self-inflicted wound from which it never really recovered." p. 151)

In former AFT president David Selden's The Teacher Rebellion, the reader sees a portrait of Albert Shanker that you don't get from most modern folklore. (Selden depicts Shanker as a ruthless, back-stabbing, son-of-a-gun.) He even accuses the United Federation of Teachers of inciting Jews against blacks during the Ocean Hill-Brownsville standoff by printing up anti-Semitic flyers in the union's print shop (a half million copies.) The UFT then distributed them to get the city's Jewish community riled up to support the union. ("Shanker denied any prior knowledge of the flyer operation." p. 153.)

Both are good reads, especially as reminders as what unions were supposed to accomplish for their members and for public education as a whole.

4. What is an important issue that I'd like to see a good book written about?

Since I like policy stuff, I'd love to see more envelope-pushing in terms of finding a "third way," or striking a bold compromise that will bring the changes our schools need (without necessarily throwing the baby out with the bathwater.) Remember how Matthew Miller dabbled a bit in this area in The Two Percent Solution? I'd love to see an entire manifesto like that devoted just to education. Even if it is goofy, it gets people thinking about the various trade-offs.

5. What edubook do I wish had never been written?

My take is different than Sara's. I think even the klunkers are worthwhile because debates and discussions about why they are klunkers are worthwhile. We need more edubooks, even bad ones.

6. What are 5 books that I'd recommend to an aspiring educator, ed researcher, or ed policy person?

My caveat is that these are supplementary to all the pedagogical stuff...

a.) The Prince, by Niccole Machiavelli. Explains how power is attained and maintained.
b.) Rules for Radicals, by Saul Alinsky. Explains how power is taken away.
c.) Common Sense School Reform, by Rick Hess. Gets you wondering "why not?" which for my money is the most important question out there.
d.) Class and Schools, by Richard Rothstein. Even if his thesis makes you crazy, it is important to see what he's really talking about.
e.) Public Education: An Autopsy, by Myron Lieberman. He may be the craziest dude you'll ever meet, and sometimes he really goes out on a limb, but his crankiness sometimes sheds light in places that have long been dark in public education.