Inside Today's Elementary Schools

Part I: Shortsighted Vision & Lopsided StaffingChapter 1: The House on Sleepy Hollow RoadBridges and PotholesHow the Book Is OrganizedChapter 2: So Many Girls...So Few PrincesSome Negative Effects of the Gender Staffing ImbalanceWhat You Can DoChapter 3: When Am I Ever Going to Use Any of This?Adventure and High PurposeThe Romantic ChildLessons from Harry PotterIndustry vs. InferiorityThe Zombie ApocalypseWhat You Can DoChapter 4: And Then God Made School BoardsThe AdministrationTotal Management MentalityAdversarial PostureWho Becomes an Administrator?Toxic CultureThe Good OnesWhat You Can DoChapter 5: the Bottom of the Barrel?Women's Work: The MotherDrill and Kill: The SergeantJust Tell Me What to Do: the SheepThe Easiest Major: The UnderachieverTeacher Training, Where It All BeginsWhy Should We Teach Anyway?What You Can DoChapter 6: What to Do about These Four ThingsOur Vision of Teachers and SchoolsPersonnel ReformPart II: The Wall of Separation, Administrative Bloat, and Boundless AccommodationChapter 7: Platonic Curriculum; Epicurean SocietyWho Formulates the Standards?What Are Standards Designed to Do?What Is the Nature of the Standards?Five Basic Problems with Current Elementary StandardsThree Possible SolutionsWhat You Can DoChapter 8: Just Wastin' TimeThe Different Kinds of Wasted TimeWhere Does the Time Go?Time-Off-TaskWhy Is So Much Time Lost?How Lost Time Negatively Impacts Teacher and StudentWhat You Can DoChapter 9: No Child Left Behind?A Brief History of Standardized TestsCommon CritiquesThe Real Reason Why NCLB Caused So Much TroubleLife after NCLBWhat You Can DoChapter 10: I'm Five Teachers at Once!What is Differentiated Instruction?A Sympathetic Critique of DILess Noble reasons for Using DIWhat You Can DoChapter 11: The Incredible Bending SchoolReasonable Special Education and Non-Academic ServicesUnreasonable Special Education and Non-Academic

James J. Dillon, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of West Georgia, USA. He is a graduate of Clark University, a certified public elementary school teacher, and author of Partnerships in Research, Clinical, and Educational Settings (2000) and Teaching Psychology and the Socratic Method (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2016).