DOES ANYBODY GIVE A DAMN?

Ten years ago, when Hentoff wrote Our Children Are Dying, he introduced Dr. Elliott Shapiro, a Harlem principal of exceptional decency and intelligence who nimbly circumvented the inanities of the New York City school system and welcomed the community into P.S. 119. Hentoff, a staunch public school advocate, continues to search out schools concerned with "the life of the child" and to report on individuals who manage, despite budget cutbacks and bureaucratic folly, to educate children in meaningful ways. Those featured include one teacher, two principals, a parent activist, ex-Chancellor Scribner, and Shapiro himself, now a graduate school professor. Observed and interviewed separately, they share certain crucial beliefs: the educability of all children and the need for parent involvement and professional accountability. Hentoff is a cautious reporter, no longer impressed by labels—too often "open-classroom" has meant "benign intellectual neglect"; he's interested in "replicable" set-ups, even traditional ones, that give children both skills and satisfaction, and accordingly he finds adult expectations more significant than teaching style. Preceding these accounts of particular schools is a chapter on corporal punishment, a practice upheld by the Supreme Court in 1975, which now faces—at long last—increasingly organized opposition around the country. Articulate, selective reporting.