Michael Harker’s goal is to record Iowa’s historically significant architecture before it disappears forever. From Coon Center School no. 5 in Albert City to Pleasant Valley School in Kalona, North River School in Winterset to Douglas Center School in Sioux Rapids, and Iowa’s first school to Grant Wood’s first school, he has achieved this goal on a grand scale in Harker’s One-Room Schoolhouses.

Not only are the memories of attending a one-room school interesting, but the history of the beginning of one-room schools and the 19th-century idealism of our nation introduces one to how this part of our heritage impacted us as a nation today. Chapters feature the Amish one-room schoolhouse, the schoolteacher, school books, teaching apparatus, desks and chairs, and rules and regulations. (70pp. illus. Masthof Press, 2005 reprint of 1997 ed.)

Enveloped in mystery, Amish culture has remained a captivating topic within mainstream American culture. In this volume, David Weaver-Zercher explores how Americans throughout the 20th century reacted to and interpreted the Amish. Through an examination of a variety of visual and textual sources, Weaver-Zercher explores how diverse groups - ranging from Mennonites to Hollywood producers - represented and understood the Amish.

In this fascinating collection, some of the foremost historians of education—including Barbara Beatty, Larry Cuban, Linda Eisenmann, Yoon Pak, John Rury, and Jonathan Zimmerman—debunk commonly held myths about American schooling. Each short, readable chapter focuses on one myth, explaining what the real history is and how it helped shape education today. Contributors take on a host of tall tales, including the supposed agrarian origins of summer vacation; exaggerated stories of declining student behavior and academic performance; persistent claims that some people are born to be teachers; idealistic notions that the 1954 Brown decision ended segregation in American schools; misleading beliefs that classrooms operate in ways designed to fit the industrial era; and more. 23 Myths About the History of American Schools will awaken the inner history nerd of everyone who ever asked, “How did we get this crazy school system?” It will affirm the truth that its readers are as entitled to think critically about schooling as anyone else. Contributors include Barbara Beatty, Larry Cuban, Linda Eisenmann, Yoon Pak, John Rury, and Jonathan Zimmerman.

The history of American education is a vital and productive field of study. This reference book provides factual information about eminent people and important topics related to the development of American public, private, and parochial schools, covering elementary and secondary levels. In addition to major state and regional leaders and reformers, it includes biographies of significant national educators, philosophers, psychologists, and writers. Subjects embrace important ideas, events, institutions, agencies, and pedagogical trends that profoundly shaped American policies and perceptions regarding education. The more than 350 entries are arranged alphabetically and written by expert contributors. Each entry closes with a brief bibliography, and the volume ends with a list of works for further reading. Entries were drawn from a review of leading history of education textbooks and the History of Education Quarterly. These topics were further refined by comments from leading authorities and the contributors. Most of the contributors are established scholars in the history of education, curriculum and instruction, school law, educational administration, and American history; a few also work as public and private school teachers and thus bring their practical experience to their entries. The period covered begins in the colonial period and continues through the 1990s.