The Sun's Not Broken, A Cloud's Just In The Way: On Child Centered Teaching

This is a warm and moving account of how a teacher made a safe yet stimulating place for young children to learn. Sydney begins with respect for people, and by the end of each year the children (in Hunters Point and Harlem, aged four) not only read and figure, but care for each other as well.
You will meet Millie, who arrived in the class speaking in grunts and learned to love language; Ivan, who started out breaking everything he could get his hands on to get back at a world which had brutalized him from birth; and the twins, Deena and Dinah, who taught Sydney about support systems. This book is about real children in an extraordinary classroom run by a woman with a clear vision of responsible child-rearing.

Sydney proposes radical changes in American education based on her experience. She recommends teacher-parent evaluation groups as the basis for merit pay systems and she calls for a voucher system to give parents a real voice in their children's education.