theodore-sizerLast November I was privileged to participate with my dear friend and colleague Juanita Brown in a presentation before the Coalition of Essential Schools Fall Forum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Juanita worked for CES for a time. It is through her that I learned of this incredible organization. If you are not aware of CES and and its founder, Theodore Sizer, I hope you’ll take a few moments to click on the links in this post and find out.

So, who is Ted Sizer? Alexander Hoffman offers as good a description as I’ve run across:

Ted Sizer was a critic and trouble maker. He looked at our schools, all of our schools, and said in essence, not good enough and we are doing it wrong.

He didn’t mean the bad schools. And he didn’t mean achievement gaps. He meant all schools. He meant the good schools too, even the best schools.

So, who the hell was Ted Sizer? He was a visionary educator and critic of our schools, a real giant who was influential enough to get a 1000+ word obituary in yesterday’s New York Times and numerous other tributes and articles this week.

Ted Sizer was also an author whose books, I am honored to say, were distributed by my publisher, Beacon Press. Here’s what my friends at the Beacon Broadside had to say.

Theodore Sizer was one of the good guys who I suspect many people have never heard of. I know for a fact that his life impacted many others and will continue doing so far into the future.