"We believe that educators should be on the front lines of a reform movement to make critical democracy and citzenship a primary aim of American education. Goodman's study of a school that attempts to promote democratic ideals, values, and actions, with all its strengths and shortcomings, has far reaching implications for educators, cultural workers, and those who are responsible for school policy at all levels. Most importantly, it provides a multiplicity of democratic images for those educators who, against great odds, have not ceased in the struggle to transform the project of schooling into the search for a world less burdened by oppression and human suffering. Goodman's book is not about false optimism, but about radical hope." ? Henry A. Giroux and Peter L. McLaren

"This book brings critical theory alive. It brings the important issues raised by the critical theorists to elementary classrooms and creates a picture of schooling for critical democracy that teachers will be able to understand. The book is enriched by the many vivid examples that help clarify the meaning of theoretical recommendations and that support the conclusions drawn in the study.

"This outstanding book is one I will want to read and reread and one I want to share with my students and former students. I have been searching for a book like this and am excited to find it." ? Dorene Ross, University of Florida