Stone Trumpet: A Story of Practical School Reform, 1960-1990

A bold, Deweyan critique of American education reform.

In a field crowded with quick fixes, federal initiatives, and technological "solutions," few works ask the harder question: what counts as genuine educational improvement in the first place?

The Stone Trumpet by Richard A. Gibboney is a bold, wide-ranging examination of American school reform across three turbulent decades. Drawing on a Deweyan-progressive framework, Gibboney challenges readers to rethink not only how reforms are implemented, but whether they are educationally worthwhile at all.

From the New Math and science reforms of the 1960s to competency-based education, Individually Guided Education, and the Coalition of Essential Schools, The Stone Trumpet offers a searching, often irreverent critique of major reform movements. It exposes how "technological" approaches to schooling can displace thoughtful judgment--and how well-intentioned reforms can fail when they lose sight of intellectual and democratic purposes.

Part history, part critique, and part philosophical inquiry, The Stone Trumpet provides richly detailed case studies and a coherent lens for evaluating decades of reform efforts.