Thirteen Questions: Reframing Education's Conversation provides alternative answers to those questions about our educational system that have been answered up till now by an outmoded, conservative, educational agenda. Rather than resting comfortably on a sentimental vision of education's history to provide their answers, the authors take a realistic look at our current educational system and provide sound answers to the most difficult questions. 1. What are the basics and are we teaching them? 2. Who decides the forms schools have taken and who should decide? 3. Is it true that teachers aren't as good as they used to be? 4. Do students misbehave more than they used to? 5. What is good teaching, and how do we teach people to be good teachers? 6. Should the fact that we live in a democratic society make a difference in what our schools are like? 7. In what ways does gender affect the educational process? 8. In what ways does race affect the educational process? 9. In what ways does class affect the educational process? 10. What is the effect of media on the educational experience of children? 11. What have been the effects of the attempts to improve education over the last decade? 12. What's missing in the public conversation about education? 13. What are schools for and what should we be doing in the name of education?

The Contributors: Madeleine R. Grumet, William F. Pinar, Magda Lewis, Donaldo Macedo, Shirley R. Steinberg, Deborah P. Britzman, Clinton B. Allison, Kathleen Berry, Eleanor Blair Hilty, Andrew Gitlin, Harvey J. Kaye, Dalton B. Curtis, Jr., Jo Anne Pagano, Janet L. Miller, Joyce E. King, Christine E. Sleeter, Walter Gutierrez, Clara Ann New, Susan R. Takata, Joseph W. Newman, William Stanley, Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr., Joe L. Kincheloe, Stephen Haymes, Douglas J. Simpson, Peter McLaren, Dennis Carlson, Henry A. Giroux, Maxime Greene.