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BOOK REVIEWS

ENLIGHTENED, SCHOLARLY REQUIRED READING

110 LIVINGSTON STREET. By David Rogers. Random House, New York. 584 pages. $8.95.

THIS BOOK SHOULD BE required reading for anyone interested in urban education. It is a detailed explanation of the way in which the public educational institution which has formed the backbone of our society has ceased to function effectively in a changing society. It is also a penetrating look into the workings of modern city government. Careful reading will lead one to the inescapable conclusion that unless there is a realistic understanding and a basic attempt to restructure the fabric of our American cities, the inevitable result will be chaos and destruction.

If, as we are often told, education is the keystone of those social functions which are constructively viewed and used by a populace in order to survive in an effective manner, then there is no reason to be surprised at the intense demands of minority populations of New York City. Certainly, the Black and Puerto Rican population, by boycotts, demonstrations, sit-ins and other means which are often called extremist, are attempting to define the stake they have in the educational system of an urban metropolis. It is no wonder that, as time goes by, these efforts to survive will become more and more extreme as they find their normal efforts frustrated by the rigidities of the institutions that are supposed to serve them.

It is true that people who were formerly not "in the know" educationally and who passively accepted the authority and the dictates from that authority as to their own destinies and their own capabilities are now increasingly restive. They are beginning to understand the workings of bureaucracy. They are beginning to understand the manner in which they are deprived. They are beginning to understand what it means to buck the establishment. They are beginning to understand what they will have to do in order to bring about the re-ordering of the educational system and, in a sense, the restructuring of civic government.

The book is an in-depth analysis of the failure of the public education system in New York City to effect any important desegregation of its school facilities. In detailing that history, the author recites the long record of policy statements issued by several boards of education that have been housed at 110 Livingston Street over the past decade. The discrepancy between word and deed as found in these statements is most instructive.

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