Soundings is a book of genuine significance and lasting importance. Coming at a critical juncture in the middle school movement, this work provides a vicarious visit to a vibrant, highly successful school program that is "middle school" in its every aspect. Here is that fully detailed and illustrated example to inform and inspire-that rhetoric in practice to hold up for examination and emulation. For the thousands of middle level teachers who recognize that the still largely subject-centered curriculum does not help young adolescents acquire the skills and dispositions needed for success in tomorrow's world and who wish they could create a more democratic community, this book is a godsend!