Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century

313 Pages·2008·1.04 MB·English

by  Jonathan Zimmerman

Innocents Abroad

Innocents Abroad
american teachers in
the american century
Jonathan Zimmerman
harvard university press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
Copyright © 2006 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2008.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zimmerman, Jonathan, 1961–
Innocents abroad: American teachers in the American century / Jonathan Zimmerman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-02361-1 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-674-03206-4 (pbk.)
1. Educational exchanges—United States—History—20th century. 2. Teachers—
United States—History—20th century. I. Title
LB2283.Z56 2006
370.116'3—dc22 2006043740
For Adam Jordan Spandorfer
June 4, 1993–February 7, 2005
and for John, Amy, David, and Julia
In memory, and with love

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Aboard the USS Thomas 1
I American Dilemmas 21
1 The American Method 23
2 The American Curriculum 51
3 Schooling for All? 81
II American Critiques 113
4 The Protective Garb of the “Job” 117
5 Going Global, or Going It Alone? 152
6 Ambivalent Imperialists 181
Epilogue: American Teachers in a Global Age 211
Notes 225
Index 291

Acknowledgments
Books come from authors, and authors from parents. In 1966, just be-
fore my fifth birthday, my father joined the Peace Corps and took our
family to Bangalore, India. Two years after that, we went to Teheran,
Iran, for another Peace Corps assignment. Along the way, my mother
began a long career as an international family-planning educator. To-
gether, Paul and Margot Zimmerman exposed me to the central themes
in this book: culture, teaching, and the role of America in the world. It
would be a very different book—with a very different author—if not
for them.
I am also grateful to my grandmother, Rose Aginsky Zimmerman,
who has been my role model and occasional roommate for the past nine
years in New York City. Born in 1907, during the first elected admin-
istration of Theodore Roosevelt, Grandma taught in the New York
City public schools for more than four decades. And she teaches still, in
her own way, about the things that matter: family, friendship, and edu-
cation. She will not be here forever, I know, but I feel fortunate to have
known her for as long as I have.
Most of all, I am lucky to have found a home at New York Univer-
sity’s Steinhardt School of Education. The list of colleagues and stu-
dents who have nurtured me at NYU is too long to enumerate here. But
I’m especially grateful to Richard Arum, Rene Arcilla, Joan Malczewski,
and Dean Mary Brabeck for their friendship and support. A generous
ix