The failure of America's schools is all around us. Often, those who have worked the hardest to prevent that failure, classroom teachers, get blamed. Unlike most books critical of American education, Can America’s Schools be Saved? was actually written by a veteran teacher. It takes the position that real source of the failure is the philosophy behind American education. By unknowingly accepting the basic ideas behind John Dewey’s world view, reformers on both ends of American politics miss a fundamental reason that the school system so often fails to deliver on its promises. The solutions found in Can America’s Schools be Saved? are based on traditional understandings of human nature and learning. It is time to re-examine the methods that were abandoned in attempt to fix aspects of education that worked well, like punishments that focused on individual wrongdoing, memorization of actual facts, and a focus on the teacher as the transmitter of information. Can America’s Schools be Saved? raises questions that the educationists and educrats do not want raised, and proposes solutions that would put educational control back into the hands of parents, local communities, and the teachers who know those problems best.