Is the American School System failing by mistake or by design? Why does a nation known globally as a democracy invest billion of its citizens' dollars in a national school system that operates on the basis of socioeconomic class? Why has America fallen in the roster of nations in education, when it once was rated number 1? The answers to these important questions are found in the thorny history of the American school system chronicled in this book. Unlike any other books on positive change in education, this book drives the reader down the historical evolution of the American school system, past the racist issues and political faux pas. Then the reader is delivered to a unique and challenging but practical proposal. This book goes one big step beyond the rest by bringing the reader to a solution in which he or she can actually participate.

Rosanna Pittella, MA, PhD, ethicist and senior program manager, has invested much of her life studying and resolving complicated organizational problems. She has built a reputation as one who delivers practical solutions, which she freely admits are unearthed and developed with help from the unrecognized experts in American industry, those on the ground-the voiceless staffs of the corporations she serves. The application of this methodology is at the heart of the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, that is, to document and amplify the voices of the true experts in academia, the educators themselves. Her burning desire is, with the help of educators, to develop a model for American schools that will finally address the differences and needs of children at varying socioeconomic levels, scaffolding each one to his or her greatest potential as contributing citizens of the United States and the world.