I found this book to be inspiring. While I am mired in the realities of grad studies in education--lesson plans, theory, pedagogy, etc.--this book helped remind me of why I wanted to pursue teaching in the first place. Counts calls for teachers to become leaders, not just in their schools or local communities, but as an effective, powerful political force. We are the ones in the trenches, aren't we the experts on education in America? Shouldn't we know how to fix it? Shouldn't we try?

The book is a bit dated--I couldn't help by shake my head in disgust when I read Counts ideas of what a teacher's union could and should do and compared it to my limited experience with those organizations. He presents an idealized movement where social problems that are the root of educational problems are addressed/eliminated, where teachers are respected leaders and seen as the professionals they are, and where our schools, in the end, effectively serve more students than they currently do.

Count's brief book on the role of teachers in the shaping of society's values is a must read for future teachers and anyone interested in the social foundations of education. By positing that teacher should champion classroom discourse that focuses on issues of democratic living, he places the emphasis of the curriculum where it should be - issues of social justice. Likewise the implementation of this ethically conscious curriculum is left in the hands of those who, if empowered, could have the greatest impact concerning issues of equity in American society - classroom teachers. The relevance of Count's criticism of racism, rote education and of the dangers of unchecked capitalism are such that this work could have just as easily been written in our present.