The Neighbor's Kid: A Cross-Country Journey in Search of What Education Means to Americans

Twenty-four year-old Phil Brand drove his car across the United States during the 2008-2009 school year visiting schools in each of 49 states. The schools were public and private, religious and secular, typical and unusual. Brand wanted to learn first-hand what students, parents, teachers and principals think about their elementary and secondary schools and what they expect from education. His principal discovery: When it comes to picking a school parents care most about the kids with whom their own children associate. Not the curriculum, not the teachers, but the other kids.