Our School

Almost every major American city is experimenting with school choice—a deeply controversial idea that is dramatically reshaping public education. Will the wider array of school options help parents and educators identify better strategies for helping all children learn? Or will the high stakes of the marketplace end up privatizing this most public of institutions? Education activist Sam Chaltain believes that before we can answer these questions, we must put a human face on the modern landscape of teaching and learning. Our School documents a year in the life of two schools in the nation’s capital—one a new charter school just opening its doors, the other a neighborhood school that first opened in 1924. Chaltain weaves together the observations and emotions of the people whose lives intersect there, and the triumphs and the challenges they experience. The result is an unsettling, complex portrayal of American public education. Our School is important reading for educational policymakers, administrators, parents, the media, and anyone who aspires to be a teacher.

Book Features:

• Specific recommendations for creating a healthy, high-functioning school.
• A detailed account of what school choice actually looks and feels like to the people who experience it.
• A vivid description of the modern classroom and what it’s really like to teach in public school.
• An important focus on the humanity of teachers (their personal histories, their reasons for entering the profession, their day-to-day challenges).
• An intimate look at the inner lives of children (their biggest fears and needs, their moments of triumph and understanding).

Sam Chaltain is a national educator and organizational change consultant based in Washington, DC. He was the national director of the Forum for Education and Democracy and the founding director of the Five Freedoms Project. Visit his blog at samchaltain.com.

“One of the strengths of this thoughtful, highly readable book is that Chaltain, himself a former teacher, takes the concerns of teachers, parents, and students seriously as he spends an entire school year observing them in action.”

—The Washington Monthly

“Parents, educators, and policymakers should read this book.”
—Parker J. Palmer, bestselling author

“Our School is so important for anyone who genuinely cares about schools, communities, and their children.”
—From the Foreword by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned author and educator

“This is an important book. Our School is vibrant and alive. Sam Chaltain’s keen insights and warm, readable prose invite readers to experience the complex, challenging, often frustrating, and occasionally triumphant lives of four caring teachers and their students. I urge you to accept the invitation.”
—John Merrow, education correspondent, PBS NewsHour, and president and executive producer, Learning Matters , Inc.

“Sam Chaltain has thought long and hard about what makes a good school, and how to solve that riddle for as many of our country’s students as possible. In Our School, he describes the year he spent at a traditional public school and a charter school in Washington, D.C. His aim is not to compare—it’s to find the commonalities that make for success and deploy that wisdom to make school choice a plus for all students, rather than a new dividing line. It’s the worthiest of goals, attained with mastery.”
—Emily Bazelon, senior editor at Slate