Research Catalog

Title

Let's kill Dick & Jane : how the Open Court Publishing Company fought the culture of American education / Harold Henderson.

Author

Henderson, Harold, 1948-

Publication

South Bend, Ind. : St. Augustine's Press, 2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

161 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"For thirty-four years, from 1962 to 1996, the Open Court Publishing Company sold elementary math and reading textbooks that tried to combat the culture and bring about real school reform. Stories from the company's struggles help make this culture visible." "In Let's Kill Dick and Jane, Harold Henderson gives a historical, yet personal, portrait from the company's beginnings through all the financial and cultural travails and its sale in 1996 to McGraw-Hill. It shows how a company of idealistic pragmatists can chip away at the edifice of mediocrity that has become American education."--Jacket.

Alternative Title

Let's kill Dick and Jane

Subject

• Open Court Publishing Company > History
• Textbooks > United States
• Textbooks > Social aspects > United States
• Educational change > United States
• Educational publishing > United States

Genre/Form

History

Note

• Includes index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

What is the problem (1900-1962) -- What should children do in school? -- Ahead of its time : the beginnings of open court reading (1962-1967) -- Selling reform with guarantees (1966-1973) -- Trying to sell a principled program (1966-1973) -- Gaining credibility (1968-1974) -- Math : forward to thinking, not back to basics (1971-1984) -- Working bottom-up and top-down (1975-1985) -- Research, resistance, renewal (1978-1985) -- Selling reform by disguise : the move toward the middle (1983-1989) -- Counterfeit reform (1985-1988) -- Whole language and CYS (1987-1996)

ISBN

1587319195 (hardcover : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2006010140

OCLC

65425789

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library