Sam Chaltain – författare

First Freedoms incorporates documents that are drawn from the history of First Amendment rights in America - an ongoing experiment in freedom. Like all experiments, it is full of trial and error. The story of freedom in America recounted here is often painful and contentious - but it is ultimately inspiring. Through it all, the ideal of building a nation 'with liberty and justice for all' keeps pulling America forward, calling its citizens to do better. Incorporating nearly 40 documents relating to First Amendment rights in America, First Freedom traces the ongoing efforts to establish the freedoms on which the country was founded.

In a stinging dissent to a 1961 Supreme Court decision that allowed the Illinois state bar to deny admission to prospective lawyers if they refused to answer political questions, Justice Hugo Black closed with the memorable line, "We must not be afraid to be free." Black saw the First Amendment as the foundation of American freedom--the guarantor of all other Constitutional rights. Yet since free speech is by nature unruly, people fear it. The impulse to curb or limit it has been a constant danger throughout American history. In We Must Not Be Afraid to Be Free, Ron Collins and Sam Chaltain, two noted free speech scholars and activists, provide authoritative and vivid portraits of free speech in modern America. The authors offer a series of engaging accounts of landmark First Amendment cases, including bitterly contested cases concerning loyalty oaths, hate speech, flag burning, student anti-war protests, and McCarthy-era prosecutions. The book also describes the colorful people involved in each case--the judges, attorneys, and defendants--and the issues at stake. Tracing the development of free speech rights from a more restrictive era--the early twentieth century--through the Warren Court revolution of the 1960s and beyond, Collins and Chaltain not only cover the history of a cherished ideal, but also explain in accessible language how the law surrounding this ideal has changed over time. Essential for anyone interested in this most fundamental of our rights, We Must Not Be Afraid to Be Free provides a definitive and lively account of our First Amendment and the price courageous Americans have paid to secure them.

Inspirational stories of engaging, real-life educational experiences Everyone has a personal learning story, a time when they became actively engaged in their own education. Maybe it was an especially challenging teacher, or a uniquely supportive environment, or a collaborative classroom. In Faces of Learning, both well-known public figures, such as Arne Duncan and Al Franken, and ordinary Americans recall the moments when they truly learned something. Includes stories from people of all different backgrounds and from all over the countryThe stories are grouped into categories by theme like "relevant" and "experiential" to help reveal the common characteristics of what works in educationEach chapter ends with five things you can do to improve your own learning, that of your students, and of all AmericansReaders can visit the companion website www.facesoflearning.net to share their own stories of educational success and find out what else they can do.

Almost every major American city is experimenting with school choice - a deeply controversial idea that is dramatically reshaping public education. Will the wider array of school options help parents and educators identify better strategies for helping all children learn? Or will the high stakes of the marketplace end up privatising this most public of institutions? Education activist Sam Chaltain believes that before we can answer these questions, we must put a human face on the modern landscape of teaching and learning. Our School documents a year in the life of two schools in the nation’s capital - one a new charter school just opening its doors, the other a neighbourhood school that first opened in 1924. Chaltain weaves together the observations and emotions of the people whose lives intersect there, and the triumphs and the challenges they experience. The result is an unsettling, complex portrayal of American public education. Our School is important reading for educational policymakers, administrators, parents, the media, and anyone who aspires to be a teacher.