Here, veteran teacher Cheri Pierson Yecke details the chronological history of the middle school movement in the U. S. by tracing its evolution from academically-oriented junior high schools to the dissolution of academics in the middle schools of the late 1980s and beyond. In this book, evidence is presented to show how leaders of this movement designed to use the middle school as a vehicle to promote non-academic goals, contrary to the desires of parents and the community. Favored instructional practices--such as the elimination of ability grouping and the rise in cooperative learning and...

"I'd never done anything crazy like this before - a pilgrimage walk. I was not a hiker, and I wasn't a Catholic. In fact, I wasn't even sure I was a Christian. On the last government census when I had to state my religion, I'd said I was a Buddhist, mainly because they've had such a hard time in Tibet and I felt they needed my statistical support. I was also not an adventure traveller. For me, adventure travel was flying coach. All this backpacking and wearing of heavy boots and flying off to France to walk ancient pilgrimage routes was a new experience, and not one that made me feel entirely...