Public School

As a student named Rick Starr experiences elementary school, middle school, and high school, he learns more about gender roles, psychological isolation, bullying, and apathy than about reading, writing, and arithmetic. After suffering through bad teachers, navigating the social ladder, confronting bullies, and completing countless standardized tests, he has a revelation about public school in America: It's comprised of sex, lies, and scantrons.

Another pandemic is coming. We need to identify the lessons learned from our successes and failures during the COVID-19 pandemic to plan better for our future response.

In mid-September 2022, a Swedish newspaper, Nya Dagbladet, published a shocking memorandum purported to be from the RAND Corporation, a California thinktank long associated with Pentagon war game exercises. The recently discovered documents purportedly supply justification for a goad of Russia into war with Ukraine. Was the RAND Report the 2022 Ukraine War's version of the The Zimmerman Telegram from World War I (WWI) or simply disinformation?

Jenny Kaine resurfaces with a one-time offer that kicks Talia's warrior instincts into high gear. A terrifying betrayal and a violent attack drive Keith and Talia and the whole Mexico Expedition into lockdown. Talia's stunning revelation and crushing mishap may end any hope of unraveling the tangled Web of Araña. A tablet update sparks turmoil and terror as students respond to "activation orders.' One conflicted father may hold the key to understanding more about the enemy -- if he lives to tell his tale.

What these poor women must endure in order to save money is appalling—all so that four young men who have no interest in becoming doctors can have the thrill of their lives. It’s disgraceful, disturbing, and disgusting…which, according to these guys, is a very good thing!

Unsettling Choice traces the contestations that surfaced when, in the wake of the 2007-2009 Great Recession, public schools navigated austerity by expanding choice-based programs. Ujju Aggarwal argues that this strategy mobilized mechanisms rooted in market logics to recruit families with economic capital on their side, solidifying a public sphere that increasingly resembled the private.

Can money buy high-quality education? Studies find only a weak relationship between public school funding and educational outcomes. In The Money Myth, W. Norton Grubb proposes a powerful paradigm shift in the way we think about why some schools thrive and others fail. The greatest inequalities in America's schools lie in factors other than fiscal support. Fundamental differences in resources other than money explain the deepening divide in the success of our nation's schoolchildren.

The World of Monstors was created by a 3rd Grader at Shipley Elementary School in Jefferson County, WV many years ago. The creator gave the first books to his friend. The friend loved the books so much he wrote and illustrated this book. "Monstors: The Last Battle" is a tribute to creative imagination and friendship.