This book provides a comprehensive examination of the nature of the school crisis and the ways in which radical thinkers and educators are dealing with it. Excerpts from the writings of Jonathan Kozol, John Holt, Kenneth Clark, and others are concerned with the realities of education in ghettos and suburbs. Paul Goodman, Marshall McLuhan, Sylvia Ashton-Warner, and others raise basic questions about the role of the school in modern society, and discuss new directions for ghetto education, community-run schools, student freedom and participation, and relevant curricula. Almost half the book consists of firsthand reports of radical school reform in practice from Summerhill to Harlem. Among the contributors to this section are Joseph Featherstone, George Dennison, Herbert Kohl, and Omar Khayyam Moore. (AJ)