My Life In Milwaukee Public Schools

This is a book talking about the changes that have taken place in the Milwaukee Public Schools over a period of fifty years. It is seen from the eyes of a man who went from student to teacher, in the school system and worked year round at various other MPS jobs. As a student in the 1950s and 1960s, the high quality of the school system was evident. The changes started to be noticed in the 1970s, as the authors teaching career was beginning. By the year 2004, the time of retirement, Milwaukee has become a failing school system mired in mediocrity. The story of a young boy who had the opportunity to go to school in a fine school system becomes a teacher in the system and sees the changes that take place first hand. The system that had been outstanding was being attacked on all sides for its failures. This all takes place in one lifetime one career. How bad has it become? After reading these five decades of stories and events you decide!

"Milwaukee's story is unique in that its struggle for integration and quality education has been so closely tied to [school] choice." --from the Introduction "Educating Milwaukee: How One City's History of Segregation and Struggle Shaped Its Schools" traces the origins of the modern school choice movement, which is growing in strength throughout the United States. Author James K. Nelsen follows Milwaukee's tumultuous education history through three eras--"no choice," "forced choice," and "school choice." Nelsen details the whole story of Milwaukee's choice movement through to modern times when Milwaukee families have more schooling options than ever--charter schools, open enrollment, state-funded vouchers, neighborhood schools--and yet Milwaukee's impoverished African American students still struggle to succeed and stay in school. "Educating Milwaukee" chronicles how competing visions of equity and excellence have played out in one city's schools in the modern era, offering both a cautionary tale and a "choice" example.

Living a Motivated Life: A Memoir and Activities reveals how the author creatively followed vocational pursuits guided by understanding intrinsic motivation and transformative learning. Included are activities for adults to make these ideas trusted ways to determine their future.

A "biography of Golda Meir, the iron-willed leader, chain-smoking political operative, and tea-and-cake-serving grandmother who became the fourth prime minister of Israel and one of the most notable women of our time"--