Picking up the Options.

Overview & Synopsis

This book contains 23 addresses delivered by Harold Howe, II, during two of his years as United States Commissioner on Education. The speeches contain recurrent theses, but each address is unique in its emphasis and development. Howe's basic theme is the urgent necessity to provide true equality of educational opportunity for all children. Individually and collectively, the speeches furnish new insights into critical issues and invoke increased concern and an effort to approach more nearly our great aspirations for American education. In discussions of school desegregation, the education of disadvantaged children, and the plight of the ghettoes, Howe emphasizes justice and the welfare of the nation. On such subjects as early childhood education, individualized instruction, work experience for adolescents, the education of teachers, the limitations of scholastic aptitude tests, educational technology, and the values of humanistic education, Howe expresses continuing concern for the fullest development of the individual and the opening of doors for all children. He is sharply critical of unimaginative and insensitive school programs that set frustrating limits on the aspirations and achievements of human beings. (Author/JF)