Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-276) and index.

An indictment of the education establishment : the decline of teaching and learning -- A tale of American student failure : domestic ignorance and international embarrassment -- The making of a modern teacher : weak selection and a "Mickey Mouse" education -- The debased reading curriculum : whatever happened to phonics? -- Licensing and certification of teachers : a nationwide sham -- The debased general curriculum : whatever happened to geography and trigonometry? -- The psychologized classroom : counseling, personality testing, and Dr. Freud -- Private, parachial, and charter schools : superior education and a matter of choice -- Alternate certification of teachers : competition from a brighter "untrained" cadre -- Middle school and high school : legions of abandoned minds -- The teachers' unions : using schools as a political tool -- The establishment and the community : unscholarly administrators, weak school boards, and pliant PTAs -- Conclusion : how tof reform, rebuild, and regain our public schools.