Free public education was a grand experiment proposed in the mid 1800s by progressive politicians who believed it would increase the growth and development of an educated citizenry and strengthen the nation's democracy. They were right. Public education in the United States became the warp and weft of the nation's culture and economic success.Today, confidence in public education has been damaged by politicians and the financial interests that support them. Now, schools are dramatically underfunded while being blamed for a myriad of social and economic failures. Drawing on her experiences as a student and a teacher, Helen Johnson repudiates the attacks on public schools and sheds light on the remarkable successes borne from the United States' education system.

Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USX-NONEX-NONEHelen Ikerd Johnson is a retired elementary school teacher. She taught in private, parochial, and public schools for thirty-five years. In 2015, she coauthored, with Dr. Rebekkah Stuteville (Park University), a study on citizenship education in the United States. They presented the study to the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration conference in Paris, France (2015). The study was published byAdministrative Issues Journalin 2016.Rootstalk, a Prairie Journal of Culture, Science, and the Arts(Grinnell College) published a short article version ofUp Hill Both Ways(Chapter I), in the Spring of 2016. Mrs. Johnson holds a Master of Education degree in Behavioral and Emotional Disorders and an Education Specialist degree in Elementary Administration.