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- Verified Buyer
City Teachers offers the reader unique insight into a much neglected story-the story of teachers in urban schools (most notably New York City) in the 1920s, a period of great reform in public education. The exigence of a study of urban schools of the 1920s in the 21st century is made most obvious by its Summer 1999 review in the Harvard Educational Review. Here, Dr. Kathleen Murphey of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, states that "readers will be led to reflect on the enduring dimensions of teachers' work...in the reform-minded present" (p. 205, 69:2). Like Dr. Murphey, I reflected on the ways the call for reform affects administrators, teachers, students, and the community even today. The prevalent themes of the emergence of intensification of work, isolation, stress, and unfavorable physical conditions due to 1920s reforms are still readily apparent in many schools in urban, suburban, and rural settings.Rousmaniere's balanced use of primary and secondary added not only credibility but also a personal touch to her work. While Dr. Murphey criticizes that Rousmaniere's work "remains unconnected to the story of collective organizing that followed in the 1930s and later" (p. 210), I feel this book, offers an accurate (and complete) representation of urban school teaching at this time and encourages the reader to draw the connections between this era and others. As a pre-service teacher, I found this book extremely thought-provoking about the ways in which reform will shape my workplace and work experiences throughout my career.
