Product Review

By carefully documenting how space was made for Jenny a child who didn't fit the school mold this book offers a renewed sense of human possibility and an attainable vision of what schools can be. The authors demonstrate that it is only by attending to each and every child that schooling can begin to achieve its most noble aim: equality. Readers are introduced to Prospect's educational philosophy and descriptive processes, with details about what the processes are and what they offer teachers, parents, and children. Jenny's story is told through these processes ways of looking at children and their work that make it possible to know each child as a person, a thinker, and a learner. While Jenny's journey through elementary school is the heart of the book, this is also the story of a big urban school serving many immigrant families. Jenny's Story offers readers a compelling look at how teachers, staff, and the principal successfully worked with a richly diverse community. It also examines what it means to ground teaching in knowledge of the particular, careful observation, and collective inquiry, as well as how to challenge school policies and mandates that work against children's well being and dignity.