Random House published my new book SCHOOLS ON TRIAL

On February 16th, Doubleday, an imprint of Random House, published my new book SCHOOLS ON TRIAL: How Freedom and Creativity Can Fix Our Educational Malpractice. It has been endorsed by Jonathan Kozol, Temple Grandin, Deborah Meier, Sir Ken Robinson, Peter Gray, and many others. Hope you’ll consider picking up a copy (available wherever books are sold) or borrowing one from your local library.

I have also recently published pieces in the Wall Street Journal (Solutions for Stressed-Out High-School Students), Salon (Bernie Sanders’ long support for progressive education, Why John King should be rejected as Secretary of Education, and The Nation (These Politicians Think Your Kids Need High-Stakes Testing—but Not Theirs).

Book description:

Schools on Trial is an all-in attack on the American way of education and a hopeful blueprint for change by one of the most passionate and certainly youngest writers on this subject.

Are America’s schools little more than cinder-block gulags that spawn vicious cliques and bullying, negate creativity and true learning, and squelch curiosity in their inmates, um, students? Nikhil Goyal—a journalist and activist all of twenty years old, whom The Washington Post has dubbed a “future education secretary” and Forbes has named to its 30 Under 30 list—definitely thinks so. In this book he both offers a scathing indictment of our teach-to-the-test-while-killing-the-spirit educational assembly line and maps out a path for all of our schools to harness children’s natural aptitude for learning by creating an atmosphere conducive to freedom and creativity. He prescribes an inspiring educational future that is thoroughly democratic and experiential, and one that utilizes the entire community as a classroom.

My Panel Discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative University

Last weekend, I spoke on a panel on higher education at the Clinton Global Initiative University meeting, which was held at Arizona State University.

Secretary Hillary Clinton gave some opening remarks. I was joined by Bunker Roy, Founder and Director of the Barefoot College; Reeta Roy, President and Chief Executive Officer of the MasterCard Foundation; and Austin Obasohan, Duplin County Schools Superintendent.

Here’s the video of our conversation: