| BOOK CORNER September Book of the Month
Tearing Down the Gates by Peter Sacks University of California Press; 1 edition (May 29, 2007) reviewed by Felice Yeskel
If anyone wonders why Class Action has chosen education as one of the areas on which to focus in achieving our mission of ending classism, they only need read Peter Sacks’ recently published Tearing Down the Gates: Confronting the Class Divide in American Education. Utilizing individual students’ stories and analyzing hard numbers, Sacks provides a critical analysis of the role of colleges in maintaining the class structure of the U.S.
While many of us believe that education is the access channel to upward mobility, the means by which the American Dream can be realized, Tearing Down the Gates exposes the dirty little secret of American education: that our public schools and universities too often reinforce social stratification.
Sacks writes in a popular, non-academic style, while backing up his assertions with the latest research and poignant vignettes. He clearly spells out how schools, colleges, and universities exacerbate inequality by providing ample opportunities for advantaged students while shutting the gates on the poor--and even the middle class.
By placing the issue of class differences front and center, Sacks helps to break the taboo and focus our attention on the need to make serious changes in our educational system. This book urges colleges to pay more attention to the issue of class and to breaking down class barriers. Class Action has been developing the methodologies to help them to do that, perhaps now more of them will rise to the challenge.
View previous Class Action Book of the Month selections...
August Books of The Month: Staff Picks
July Book of the Month: Theory of the Leisure Class
June Book of the Month: Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons
May Book of the Month: Death in the Haymarket
April Book of the Month: Food Politics
March Book of the Month: Psychology and Economic Injustice
February Book of the Month : What's My Name, Fool?
December Book of the Month:
Dead Heat: Global Justice and Global Warming
November Book of the Month: Awol
October Book of the Month: Class Passing
September Book and Video of the Month: Beyond Silenced Voices and Declining By Degrees
August Books of the Month: Human Cargo and Gathering the Sun
July Book of the Month: The Overworked American by Juliet Schor
June Book of the Month: More Money Than God by Steven R. Leder
May Book of the Month: Global Class by Jeff Faux
April Books of the Month: Classified and Strapped
March Book of the Month: Welfare Brat, A Memoir by Mary Childers
February Book of the Month: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
January Book of the Month: Invisible Privilege: A Memoir about Race, Class, and Gender by Paula Rothenberg
View last year's Book of the Month selections...
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Download our Annotated Class Action Bibliography on Class issues
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