In her latest book, Deweyan scholar Sarah Stitzlein argues for a strong emphasis on honesty for a democracy to flourish. Writing for philosophers of education, schools, and educators, Stitzlein intersects honesty with pragmatic inquiry and then applies it as a democratic method to schools and schooling. As a seasoned practicing educator and a Deweyan philosopher of education, I read and analyzed the usefulness of Stitzlein’s text as an instrument, or tool, for improving contemporary education in the real world. While I raise several questions, I consider this book to be a wonderful instrument for assisting the development of more democratic classroom communities.
AronsonE (2000) Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion after Columbine. New York: Freeman.
3.
AronsonEPatnoeS (1997) Cooperation in the Classroom: The Jigsaw Method. New York: Longman.
4.
AyersWKumashiroKMeinersE, et al. (2010) Teaching toward Democracy: Educators as Agents of Change. New York: Routledge.
5.
DecaturRCFitzsimmonsKMcGeeK, et al. (2008) How Do Goal-setting Strategies Foster Self-regulative Behavior in Classrooms?MWERA Annual Meeting, Columbus, OH, 15 October.
6.
DeweyJ (1917) The need for a recovery of philosophy. In: DeweyJ (ed.) Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude, pp. 3–69. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
7.
Fear-SegalJ (2007) White Man’s Club: Schools, Race, and the Struggle of Indian Acculturation. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
FreireP (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
10.
GolemanD (1994) Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam.
11.
GreenJ (2008) Dr. Dewey’s deeply democratic metaphysical therapeutic for the post-9/11 American democratic disease: Toward cultural revitalization and political reinhabitation. In: GarrisonJ (ed.) Reconstructing Democracy, Recontextualizing Dewey: Pragmatism and Interactive Constructivism in the Twenty-first Century, pp. 31–54. New York: State University of New York Press.
12.
JohnsonDWJohnsonR (1991) Teaching Students to Be Peacemakers. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.
13.
JordanJV (1994) A Relational Perspective on Self-esteem. Wellesley, MA: Stone Center.
14.
National Center for Education Statistics (2024) High school graduation rates. Condition of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Available at: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/coi (accessed 9 March 2025).
15.
RuryJL (2016) Education and Social Change: Contours in the History of American Schooling. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
16.
ShookJ (2013) Dewey’s ethical justification for public deliberation democracy. Education and Culture29(1): 3–26.
17.
SmithsonM (2012) The positive impact of personal goal setting on assessment. Canadian Journal of Action Research13(3): 57–73.
18.
StrattonC (2016) Education for Empire: American Schools, Race, and the Paths of Good Citizenship. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
19.
TyackDB (1974) The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
20.
TyackDBCubanL (1995) Tinkering toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
21.
VygotskyLS (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
WarrenKC (2010) The Quest for Citizenship: African American and Native American Education in Kansas, 1880-1935. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
23.
WilliamsHA (2005) Self-taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
