A Sage on the Stage: Common Sense Reflections on Teaching and Learning
Publication Date: January 13, 2020
Schools may rise and fall, but education fads remain forever. When it comes to new ideas, sifting the wheat from the chaff can seem like an impossible task. Finally, help has arrived from one of Canada’s best-known education writers. A Sage on the Stage leaves no stone unturned in its relentless assault on the foolish fads infecting public education. From incomprehensible no-zero policies to the new-yet-old 21st Century Skills movement to discovery math that never adds up, this book debunks many of the most pervasive fads in schools today. It also lays out a positive case for the things that do work—direct instruction, knowledge-rich classrooms, and lots of practice. If you care about improving teaching and learning in our schools, this book is for you.
Available for purchase from Amazon.
Endorsements
“Education is less well than many people think. In particular, it’s heavy with quack science, junk theory, snake oil, fads, tradition, dogma, and all manner of magic beans. But in the last few years we’ve started to see thinkers and writers and educationalists push back against the tidal wave of sloppy thinking. And spearheading this has been Michael Zwaagstra, whose cogent, concise and clear thought pieces are exactly what the doctor ordered. Cutting through the rubbish with reason and wit, I recommend his work to anyone interested in dragging teaching into the 21st Century.”
Tom Bennett, Director of ResearchED and author of Teacher Proof.
“This collection of op-ed pieces provides a sobering, evidence informed reflection on many popular, yet deeply flawed trends in education. Written by an active classroom educator, this book is a must read for educators, parents and others interested in sorting the wheat from the chaff in current education discourse.”
Daniel Ansari, Professor of Psychology & Education, Western University, Canada.
“What a rarity. Sage advice from Michael Zwaagstra, a frontline secondary school teacher well equipped to cut through the education myths and cloud of edu-babble. At last, his pithy, probing and no-nonsense commentaries can be found all in one place.”
Paul W. Bennett, Ed.D., Director, Schoolhouse Institute, Halifax, NS, and founding Program Chair, researchED Canada.
“Michael Zwaagstra deserves credit for presenting a clear, wide-ranging synopsis of many contentious educational issues. This easy read featuring several years of “Op-Eds” explains every fad and its deleterious impact on our education system. This myth-buster is a valuable resource for skeptical educators, confused parents and overly-zealous politicians wanting to appeal for voter support by jumping on ill-conceived band wagons because they are new.”
Jim Dueck, Ed.D. Retired Assistant Deputy Minister, Alberta Education and author.
“Michael presents in this ordered collection of his op-eds a voice of realistic thought and reason in the wild jungle of educational fads, hypes, and eduquacks. A must read for teachers, but more importantly for policy makers, and politicians.”
Prof. dr. Paul A. Kirschner, dr.h.c. Professor Emeritus, Open University of the Netherlands.
What’s Wrong With Our Schools and How We Can Fix Them
by Michael C. Zwaagstra, Rodney A. Clifton, and John C. Long.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Education
Publication Date: July 16, 2010
This book provides parents and other concerned citizens with a direct window into public education. It challenges faulty educational ideas with common sense reasoning and research evidence.
Available in bookstores across the country and online from Amazon.
Reviews
Barbara Kay, “Better education the old-fashioned way,” National Post, August 31, 2010.
Mindelle Jacobs, “Self-esteem over skills,” Edmonton Sun, May 25, 2010.
Peter Jon Mitchell “What’s Wrong With Our Schools and How We Can Fix Them Book Review,” Focus Insights, September 25, 2010.
Katherine Hughes, (2011) “What’s Wrong with Our Schools and How We can Fix Them”, Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 49 Iss: 3, pp.335 – 336
Endorsements
“This fine and brave book more than delivers on its claim of common sense — an uncommon virtue in the world of school reform. It will empower parents and liberate teachers. I hope it will be widely read, for its message desperately needs to be heeded.”
E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
Founder, Core Knowledge Foundation
“If you read only one book on current affairs this year, make it this one. What goes on in our schools is at the core of all that happens in our country—what citizens know, what they believe, and how they behave.
The authors have marshaled all of the issues at stake in the so-called school wars, explained them lucidly and sensibly, and made recommendations that affect every American parent, teacher, school administrator, and taxpayer.
They illustrate all sides of the arguments in the vast and often confusing literature on the various aspects of the education debates and they offer practical answers to some of the most vexing questions of the day, beyond spin and image, ideology and the cant. An illuminating, eminently readable guide to the ways in which we could make our schools the instruments they should be for educating men and women to live in a democracy.”
Rita Kramer
Author of Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America’s Teachers
“The sanest, most commonsensical education-reform book I have seen in many years, What’s Wrong With Our Schools is a trove of clear-thinking, hard-won front-line wisdom, rich experience and policy sagacity. Our schools and children will be a lot better off if the authors’ advice is widely heeded.”
Chester E. Finn, Jr.
President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
“For parents puzzled by school rules and practices that don’t make sense to them, What’s Wrong With Our Schools is a useful corrective. It illumines the principal arguments now raging over education policy, and explains how to get in depth information that allows us bewildered parents and other onlookers to figure out who is right.”
Jay Mathews
Washington Post education columnist
“This is simply the best book on the public school I have seen. Written in straightforward language, parents are informed about the foolish fads that still afflict our public schools. Consistent with the research and without condescension the book advocates a return to common sense.”
Mark Holmes, Ph.D.
Assistant Director and Professor Emeritus, OISE
“The authors do an outstanding job of puncturing the balloon of progressive education, explaining in straightforward, clear, and compelling fashion why much of American k-12 education has failed over the past couple decades. Whole language, fuzzy math, constructivism, and the usual suspects are nicely critiqued. As What’s Wrong With Our Schools indicates, the main culprit in all this is an abandonment of common sense by the gurus who dominate the profession. All in all, a great read, especially for parents wondering whether the emperor has any clothes or not.”
J. Martin Rochester
Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political Science, University of Missouri-St. Louis