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In this article, the author, after reviewing current educational trends, suggests that what really needs to happen is to "abandon education altogether." He contends that the worst problems of our times result from education, or, at least, what passes for education. The contemporary world's most intractable, most destructive, most dangerous problems have been made possible by education, not the lack of it. Our problems do not arise from the failures of our education system, but its successes. Quantz provides examples of what he is suggesting, thereby allowing educators to carefully consider their past steps. In closing this article, he admits that abolishing education is an unlikely event, therefore, the next best strategy is to revisit what it means to be educated in a way that clarifies the possibilities and the limits of rationality as it explores the impact of nonrationality. He argues that we should diminish the focus on any teacher education course that takes the measurable standards of the state or the accrediting agency as the basis for organizing their curriculum and, instead, increase the experience future teachers will gain in courses with instructors who understand that education must be constructed by students with their instructors in ways that help them come to grips with the nonrational aspects of education. A bibliography is provided.

In this three-part paper, Richard Quantz proclaims that it was the spirit of the free school movement that originally attracted him to the social foundations of education and to the philosophy of education. He wonders what has happened to the progressive movement--the one that embraced Ivan Illich's call to "deschool society" and called for voucher plans to help make it possible for any child to escape the indoctrination of public schools. He also wonders why progressives now feel compelled to defend the public schools. Part II looks at where progressives have moved, and describes the reform movement as one that is intended to consciously dismantle the public schools and turn them over to the private sector. In Part III, Quantz describes Kathleen Knight Abowitz's "The Ohio Transfer Articulation Guide: An Ethics Case Study for Social Foundations of Education Faculty" as progressivism at it's best. Quantz applauds that article, which explores the struggles of a professor to balance the power of the state with her own ethical commitments. Quantz states that "The Ohio Transfer Articulation Guide" provides a careful and fair analysis and critique of Transfer Articulation Guide (TAG) agreements as well as a thoughtful consideration of an appropriate progressive response. TAG agreements create common courses at all Ohio public colleges and universities transferable from one institution to another. It puts the state in the role of curriculum developers at the postsecondary level. Quantz advocates Abowitz's article as providing an argument and a sentiment for professional ethics raised to the highest level in times where all decisions seem to be made based on economic efficiency alone.

The field of educational leadership is beset with a barrage of different "leadership theories". There are so many differently named theories and models of leadership that the student and practitioner have difficulty understanding them as anything other than an automat of alternatives. To confuse matters even more, nearly all of these alternatives claim to work in the interest of transformation and social justice and against the status quo. Unfortunately, the dominant textbooks available in educational administration and leadership favour certain traditional approaches to leadership while all but ignoring the most cogent of the contemporary critical alternatives. This essay argues that one reason for the absence of critical voices in the dominant textbooks and practices in the field results from the failure to recognize a commonality among certain critical stances on educational leadership that distinguish them from more traditional approaches. It suggests the field would benefit from recognizing that educational leadership theories may actually be approached as either organization-based theories or as culture-based theories and then advocates more consideration be given to culture-based theories.

Richard Quantz recognizes the puzzlemaster interaction pattern in many different classrooms in widely different sorts of high schools. When discussing the issue with sociologist Basil Bernstein, Bernstein said "Everyone seems to be interested in how schooling differs ... But what interests me is that whether I'm in London or Lisbon or Lagos or Hong Kong, when I step into a school, they all look alike." Although Quantz states that his own social theory is more influenced by the Bakhtin Circle than by Durkhelm, as was Bernstein, the sociologist's words repeatedly came to mind as he visited classrooms in schools that were both dramatically different and yet amazingly alike. Quantz was led to wonder if some common theme might be revealed in the ritual aspects of the puzzlemaster. While rituals have been understood in many different ways, Quantz has come to use the term to refer to those aspects of social action that suggest formalized, symbolic performance. To address the question of whether the ritual aspects of the puzzlemaster interaction pattern may suggest a commonality among schools that are in other ways very different and to elaborate all of the stages of the puzzlemaster interaction pattern, Quantz considers a number of aspects of American schooling and its culture

Discusses what can be learned about education by studying nontraditional aspects of classrooms, examining discursive traditions associated with social sciences; presenting two interaction patterns found in seminar-style classes whose ritual aspects help resolve dilemmas in commitment to individualism; noting the apparent lack of intellectual vitality supposedly existing on many campuses; and describing the complex and contradictory nature of seminars. (SM)

Addresses the assumption that ritual performances are not as important in modern, secular, bureaucratic schools as they were in communal, sacred, tribal societies, reviving a concept forged in structuralism and redefining it as a performative text, thus taking advantage of certain poststructural insights while maintaining much of the power of its forerunners. The theories of Durkheim and Turner are contrasted. (SM)

Demonstrates how a school-based mental health program helps create a caring alternative high school, based on data gathered by shadowing students; interviewing students, teachers, staff, and counselors; reviewing documents; and observing group-counseling sessions. Findings indicate that counseling allows students to experience caring, when combined with school policies encouraging connection and caring teachers. (12 references) (MLH)

Uses two classroom examples to develop a conceptualization of ritual as formulated, symbolic performance that may be seen as an aspect of action rather than a type of action. Ritual, found in nearly all classroom activities, helps explain how the most mundane and ordinary activities carry powerful cultural messages. (Author/SLD)

Responds to three reviews of "Preparing School Administrators for Democratic Authority" by Richard A. Quantz et al. Discusses issues relating to the Ph.D. program in educational administration at Miami University (Ohio), including relating theory to practice and encouraging graduates to continue to reflect and reconstruct after leaving. (CJS)

Describes the present-day school system as a cultural construct that works for a few students to the detriment of many. Proposes a model based on alternative theories of power. Describes the Ph. D. program in administration at Miami University (Ohio). (CJS)

Major theoretical elements from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin are used to develop a dialectical and transformative reading of culture. The literary devices of time and space, characterization, ideology, and ambivalence will allow critical ethnographers to portray the terrain of everyday life. (MT)

This study investigated (1) whether significant attitude changes toward educational practices took place in education majors as compared to arts and science majors; (2) if these groups differed in views toward their educational development; and (3) attitudes of faculty and cooperating teachers toward educational practices. Results are presented. (Author/MT)

Explores reasons that boys are more likely than girls to be labeled as mildly mentally retarded. Holds that the master trait "boy" is associated with auxiliary traits (such as unpredictability and unmanageability) that resemble the auxiliary traits connected with mental retardation. (Author/GC)

Holds that male/female differences in such behavior characteristics as aggression, cooperation/competition, compliance, and anxiety are not innate, but rather are social strategies available to both sexes and utilized whenever reasonable. Suggests that the sex equity problems in education can be solved by eliminating differential treatment of boys and girls. (Author/MJL)

The article discusses the importance of embedding English learner content into humanities-focused education courses, social foundations of education, or diversity in education courses. The inclusion of readings in the syllabus that directly address course concepts using a reading on some aspect of English learner education is highlighted. Linguistic diversity is cited as another topic that should be included to broaden a course's notion of diversity.

The author reflects on his interest in jazz, blues and doo-wop and of the phenomenon of white youth taking up the style of black youth. He argues that we must recognize race and the truth of our existence if we are to live in good faith. The author points out that you cannot understand him as a white person unless you understand that the aesthetic lifestyle of black music and philosophy speaks to him as human being.

This article was originally conceived for a paper session at the 2000 American Educational Studies Association conference in Vancouver, a session designed as a ?multilogue? on teaching the foundations. In the article we discuss the nature of the ?disciplines? and disciplined thinking within the field. We are vulnerable, as are many in the social sciences and humanities, to understanding ?disciplines? as biased, political codifications that privilege the elite. Yet, as we argue here, we should avoid the modernistic discipline/antidiscipline binary by recognizing the ?disciplines? as multivocal discourses. Teaching the ?disciplines? that inform social foundations from this point of view presents our students with a historically grounded, critical view of education and schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the different meanings of mild mental retardation as they influence racial bias in classification of the retarded. Factors influencing the misdiagnosis of minority children; Culturally balanced diagnostic battery (SOMPA) developed by Jane R. Mercer.