New Books at the Rohrbach Library: Education

Revealing little-known facts about the fight to teach evolution in schools, this riveting account of the dramatic 1925 Scopes Trial (aka "the Monkey Trial") speaks directly to today's fights over what students learn, the tension between science and religion, the influence of the media on public debate, and the power of one individual to change history.  Arrested For teaching John Scopes's crime riveted the world, and crowds flocked to the trial of the man who dared to tell students about a forbidden topic--evolution. The year was 1925, and discussing Darwin's theory of evolution was illegal in Tennessee classrooms. Lawyers wanted to challenge the law, and businessmen smelled opportunity. But no one imagined the firestorm the Scopes Trial would ignite--or the media circus that would follow. As reporters, souvenir-hawking vendors, angry protestors, and even real monkeys mobbed the courthouse, a breathless public followed the action live on national radio broadcasts. All were fascinated by the bitter duel between science and religion, an argument that boiled down to the question of who controls what students can learn--an issue that resonates to this day. Through contemporary visuals and evocative prose, Anita Sanchez vividly captures the passion, personalities, and pageantry of the infamous "Monkey Trial," highlighting the quiet dignity of the teacher who stood up for his students' right to learn.

As divisions grow across political, economic, and social lines, it often feels as though the only belief shared by many is that "the other side is too far gone." An authentic difficult dialogue has the power to mobilize our shared humanity in addressing divisions and making transformative change for a more just society. Decades of social science research on meaningful human exchanges can help make sure you not only engage in a difficult dialogue, but that you can engage authentically for the desired goal of transformative change. A difficult dialogue is an exchange between two or more individuals that are likely to disagree or clash. This book will provide a solid foundation for understanding and engaging in difficult dialogues. As you traverse through the pages, you will develop a better understanding of how desires for power and belonging shape each unique difficult dialogue and recognize how experiences with motivation and defensiveness impact difficult dialogues. Further, you will read about case studies of successful dialogues between children and adults and discover the positive benefits of engaging in difficult dialogues with the youth in your life. Finally, you will be given the opportunity to learn about and practice specific skills to prepare for, engage in, and move forward before, during, and after a difficult dialogue. Given the intellectual foundation you will construct while reading this book, this book includes a workbook section to put your newfound skills to work. If you are left wondering "If difficult dialogues are difficult by nature, is it really worth engaging in one?" This book will shed light on the power dialogue grants you to inspire transformative change. Difficult dialogues show us that very few people are truly "too far gone" to communicate, reflect, transform, and act. We have all bore witness to both massive societal issues and their proliferating repercussions. However, there is hope in that each can begin to be solved and dismantled with the comparatively small task of engaging in authentic difficult dialogues. To address societal ills - to grow - we must be courageous, we must be vulnerable, and we must have authentic difficult dialogues. We must do this for a better world, for a more just world, and this book may serve as a foundation and a reference as you progress in your journey.

* A New York Times Nonfiction Book to Read This Summer * An Atlanta Journal Constitution Southern Book to Read this Summer * A BookPage Most Anticipated Book of 2023 * An intimate portrait of a small town living through tumultuous times, this propulsive piece of forgotten civil rights history--about the first school to attempt court-ordered desegregation in the wake of Brown v. Board--will forever change how you think of the end of racial segregation in America. In graduate school, Rachel Martin volunteered with a Southern oral history project. One day, she was sent to a small town in Tennessee, in the foothills of the Appalachians, where locals wanted to build a museum to commemorate the events of September 1956, when Clinton High School became the first school in the former Confederacy to undergo court-mandated desegregation. But not everyone wanted to talk. As one founder of the Tennessee White Youth told her, "Honey, there was a lot of ugliness down at the school that year; best we just move on and forget it." For years, Martin wondered what it was some white residents of Clinton didn't want remembered. So she went back, eventually interviewing over sixty townsfolk--including nearly a dozen of the first students to desegregate Clinton High--to piece together what happened back in 1956: the death threats and beatings, picket lines and cross burnings, neighbors turned on neighbors and preachers for the first time at a loss for words. The national guard rushed to town, along with national journalists like Edward Morrow and even evangelist Billy Graham. But that wasn't the most explosive secret Martin learned.... In A Most Tolerant Little Town, Rachel Martin weaves together over a dozen perspectives in a kaleidoscopic portrait of a small town living through a tumultuous turning point for America. The result is a spellbinding mystery, a riveting piece of forgotten civil rights history, and a poignant reminder of the toll on those who stand on the frontlines of social change. You may never before have heard of Clinton, Tennessee--but you won't be forgetting the town anytime soon.

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES AND A USA TODAY BESTSELLER "I am an eighties baby who grew to hate school. I never fully understood why. Until now. Until Bettina Love unapologetically and painstakingly chronicled the last forty years of education 'reform' in this landmark book. I hated school because it warred on me. I hated school because I loved to dream." --Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times bestselling author of How to be an Antiracist In the tradition of Michelle Alexander, an unflinching reckoning with the impact of 40 years of racist public school policy on generations of Black lives In Punished for Dreaming Dr. Bettina Love argues forcefully that Reagan's presidency ushered in a War on Black Children, pathologizing and penalizing them in concert with the War on Drugs. New policies punished schools with policing, closure, and loss of funding in the name of reform, as white savior, egalitarian efforts increasingly allowed private interests to infiltrate the system. These changes implicated children of color, and Black children in particular, as low performing, making it all too easy to turn a blind eye to their disproportionate conviction and incarceration. Today, there is little national conversation about a structural overhaul of American schools; cosmetic changes, rooted in anti-Blackness, are now passed off as justice. It is time to put a price tag on the miseducation of Black children. In this prequel to The New Jim Crow, Dr. Love serves up a blistering account of four decades of educational reform through the lens of the people who lived it. Punished for Dreaming lays bare the devastating effect on 25 Black Americans caught in the intersection of economic gain and racist ideology. Then, with input from leading U.S. economists, Dr. Love offers a road map for repair, arguing for reparations with transformation for all children at its core.