Description: Image of Excellence is the hard-hitting story of what Time once called «America's Most Famous School.» Born in the despair of the Great Depression, the Ohio State University School grew to preeminence during the American progressive school movement launched by legendary education philosopher John Dewey. Throughout its thirty-six year history, the University School remained the progressive era's most unusual school - in part by not being a teacher preparation facility and in part by its democratic decision-making and student involvement. No matter its origins in roaring twenties' liberalism, the University School remained largely apolitical and ill prepared for the paradigm shift in American politics that accompanied the Vietnam War.
Review Quotes: «Robert W. Butche gives us a very special gift as he resurrects the memory and reestablishes the significance of this remarkable school...Butche's account, a brilliant display of local school research, depicts the trappings and difficulties of this exemplary school as its faculty and students found themselves, quite regularly, in conflict with university administration, college faculty, local school leaders and teachers, and the general community. The demise of the OSU Lab School, thrillingly portrayed from recently discovered documents, infuriates while it instructs how outstanding educational programs can be undermined in ways that one assumes are used only by the worst of politicians. 'Image of Excellence' offers a thoughtful and insightful view of educational change - one quite timely for instructional leaders as the possibilities of charter schools and school choice are currently debated. Educational historians, policy makers, administrators, and teachers will become entranced by the story of the challenges, successes, and disappointments of one of the most innovative and experimental schools in the history of American education.»
(Craig Kridel, Curator, Museum of Education, University of South Carolina)