My aim in writing this book has been to discover and

explain how American public education works what

functions it performs and by what processes. ! have also

wanted to tell some stories about events and people whose

drama, or fates, or significance touched me.

As a matter of fact. when I first thought about writing

the book, I mainly wanted to tell the stories. Like several

ot~er teacher-writers of the last few years, my relationships

with the students I taught as it happened, in New York

City-had stirred such deep feelings in me that when 1

began to write, it was about them that I wanted to tell the

world. Then when I came to It. in 1967. it was apparent

that a great and exciting challenge to the New York public

school system was in the process of fermenting, to which I

should have to attend if I wanted to write about the New

York schools and the people in them. So events pushed me

from the grateful task of telling about the personal

situations and struggles of people 1 very much cared for to

the equally grateful task of telling about a movement and a

conflict that might be productive of social change. The

movement was the community-control movement, and the