In 1970, author/educator Lonnie Palmer earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and planned to continue on to a Ph.D. program but was interrupted by a notice from the U.S. Government — a draft notice.

Knowing his low number would preempt plans to continue his education, Palmer took what he thought was a short-term position teaching high school science — and a reluctant education reformer was born.

The Politics of Education: K-12 is the culmination of Palmer’s 40-plus years working first as a teacher teaching high school physics, AP Physics, chemistry, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and pre-calculus and later as an assistant superintendent and superintendent of schools in urban, suburban and rural districts and eventually as a school district turnaround specialist in New York, North Carolina and Massachusetts.

Within a year of taking that original position teaching, Palmer was drafted during the Vietnam War and spent two years as a Science Research Assistant calibrating radiation detection devices in the Physics Health and Safety Office at the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. When he was released after serving his two years in the U.S. Army, Palmer needed a job and returned to the classroom, teaching math and science and eventually becoming a school principal and school superintendent.

Never having considered a career in education before the Vietnam War interrupted his plans to obtain a Ph.D. in physics, Mr. Palmer‘s approach to education was different from many of the teachers, administrators and school board members he came in contact with — and in some cases clashed with — during his tenure.