Noddings, Nel. Critical Lessons: What Our Schools Should Teach. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 319 pp.

by Jean Shepherd Hamm

Everyone seems to have an opinion about what schools need, especially as the 2008 presidential election approaches. The biggest problem with many suggestions is that their inventors know very little about the complexities of our educational system or the sources of the problems schools face. It is refreshing to read a volume written by an individual who has the understanding and experience to offer a well-reasoned, if radical, plan for curricular reform in public secondary schools.