Goldstein, Dana. The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession'.' New York: Doubleday, 2014.

Summary
Goldstein’s book examines the two hundred year history of the teaching profession. She looks at the underlying tension of the profession: in which it is both idealized as a savior of all social ills and ''' resented for teachers’ inability to resolve '''those issues. Teachers are miracle-working saviors of poor and downtrodden children, or they are villains preventing these children from benefitting from a good education. According to Dana Goldstein, this kind of saint-fiend split has characterized Americans’ view of teachers since universal public education first took hold in some states in the 1830s. This tension has characterized the teaching profession since becoming fully professionalized as part of the common school movement in the late 19th century. Reformers of different stripes have tried to improve teaching with some of the same fixes—merit pay based on test scores, fast-track training programs, ranking teachers—with the same lack of success. Thus, many of the great ideas of today have been tested and often failed. Moreover, from WWI to the Cold War, the negative views of public school teachers periodically erupted into a nationwide “moral panic” about national survival and have fueled the politics around the teaching profession.

Example:Horace Mann, the first secretary of education in Massachusetts and advocate of the common school movement, believed that female teachers had both idealistic and practical purposes. Female teachers could be “angelic public servants motivated by Christian faith” (moral education) and could also save the state in salaries

See Also: David Tyack-Larry Cuban,