What's Wrong with Our Schools


Book Description

What's Wrong with Our Schools and How We Can Fix Them examines the status of public education in North America and exposes many of the absurd instructional practices found in all-too-many schools. Written by three experienced educators, this book provides readers with a direct window into public education. The language is straightforward, the case studies based on real events, and the research evidence clearly presented. With chapter titles like, 'Subject Matter Matters,' 'A Pass Should be Earned,' and 'There is Too Much Edu-Babble,' the authors systematically demolish the ridiculous fads that have taken hold of public education. As unashamed apologists for the importance of knowledge and content in school curricula, the authors clearly show why the views of romantic progressives, like those of popular author Alfie Kohn, fail to stand up to rigorous scrutiny. A consistent focus on common sense permeates this book and provides parents, teachers, and administrators with practical ways in which they can help improve public education. Anyone interested in the future of public education will benefit from reading this book. For more information, visit www.fixingourschools.com.




The End of Education


Book Description

In this comprehensive response to the education crisis, the author of Teaching as a Subversive Activity returns to the subject that established his reputation as one of our most insightful social critics. Postman presents useful models with which schools can restore a sense of purpose, tolerance, and a respect for learning.




Friend of My Youth


Book Description

A “wickedly funny” (Newsweek) collection of ten short stories from Nobel Prize–winning author Alice Munro, “one of the most eloquent and gifted writers of contemporary fiction” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times). “Each of her collections demonstrates such linguistic skill, delicacy of vision, and . . . moral strength and clarity.”—Chicago Tribune A woman haunted by dreams of her dead mother. An adulterous couple stepping over the line where the initial excitement ends and the pain begins. A widow visiting a Scottish village in search of her husband’s past—and instead discovering unsetting truths about a total stranger. The miraculously accomplished stories in this collection not only astonish and delight, but also convey the unspoken mysteries at the heart of all human experience. The mastery—the almost numinous ability to say the unsayable—makes Friend of My Youth a genuine literary event.







Waiting for a Miracle


Book Description

It is the thesis of this provocative book that the deteriorating state of America's public school system is actually a reflection of the problems in our culture and society. In "Waiting For A Miracle," James P. Comer M.D., Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University Child Study Center and the author of Maggie's American Dream, and co-author of Raising Black Children, outlines the cause of these afflictions and presents an inspiring paradigm for a new way of thinking and acting with regard to children and family.At the root of the problem, he states, is a social failure to make a commitment to families, and to community and child development.Using many examples from his personal experience of growing up poor, and from more than thirty years of community involvement, Comer argues that schools can be the most important instrument of change in a society. He spells out how private, public and non-profit sectors can collaborate to enable children, families, and communities to survive and thrive.




The Schools Our Children Deserve


Book Description

Arguing against the tougher standards rhetoric that marks the current education debate, the author of No Contest and Punished by Rewards writes that such tactics squeeze the pleasure out of learning. Reprint.




How Schools Really Matter


Book Description

Most of us assume that public schools in America are unequal—that the quality of the education varies with the location of the school and that as a result, children learn more in the schools that serve mostly rich, white kids than in the schools serving mostly poor, black kids. But it turns out that this common assumption is misplaced. As Douglas B. Downey shows in How Schools Really Matter, achievement gaps have very little to do with what goes on in our schools. Not only do schools not exacerbate inequality in skills, they actually help to level the playing field. The real sources of achievement gaps are elsewhere. A close look at the testing data in seasonal patterns bears this out. It turns out that achievement gaps in reading skills between high- and low-income children are nearly entirely formed prior to kindergarten, and schools do more to reduce them than increase them. And when gaps do increase, they tend to do so during summers, not during school periods. So why do both liberal and conservative politicians strongly advocate for school reform, arguing that the poor quality of schools serving disadvantaged children is an important contributor to inequality? It’s because discussing the broader social and economic reforms necessary for really reducing inequality has become too challenging and polarizing—it’s just easier to talk about fixing schools. Of course, there are differences that schools can make, and Downey outlines the kinds of reforms that make sense given what we know about inequality outside of schools, including more school exposure, increased standardization, and better and fairer school and teacher measurements. ? How Schools Really Matter offers a firm rebuke to those who find nothing but fault in our schools, which are doing a much better than job than we give them credit for. It should also be a call to arms for educators and policymakers: the bottom line is that if we are serious about reducing inequality, we are going to have to fight some battles that are bigger than school reform—battles against the social inequality that is reflected within, rather than generated by—our public school system.




What Is Wrong With Our Schools? The ideology impoverishing education in America and how we can do better for our students


Book Description

"What is wrong with our schools?" is the question everyone seems to be asking, or more like screaming nowadays. Standard answers point to everything from school funding to unions to bureaucracies and more. In this book, Daniel Buck provides a different answer: flawed ideas - ideas about instruction, curriculum, even human nature itself - are the root cause of American schooling's dysfunction. Touching on philosophy, contemporary educational studies, cognitive science, and his own experience in the classroom, Buck argues that so long as we build our system on incorrect first principles, all other reforms are for naught. In place of the progressive education that pervades our schools, Buck argues for a traditionalist approach - classic literature, direct instruction, sequenced curricula, clear rules and consequences - as the education we need for the future.




What's Wrong with the World


Book Description

G.K. Chesterton delivers insightful commentary on modern behavior and social practices influenced by big business, gender roles, government and other notable figures throughout his lifetime. The book is inspired by his own personal beliefs regarding faith, family and the working man. What’s Wrong with the World is a critical analysis of various topics covered by acclaimed writer G.K. Chesterton. He tackles contemporary ideals that dominate society and dictate culture. This book compiles Chesterton’s most prominent beliefs about the dangers of consumerism and a social hierarchy that thrives on oppression. It’s an indictment of what he considers the world’s most undeniable ills. G.K. Chesterton was a principled man with old fashioned values. His personal views shaped his literary work as well as his opinion of others. His catalog is full of essays offering distinct commentary with an indelible writing style. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of What’s Wrong with the World is both modern and readable.




Our Schools and Education: the War Zone in America


Book Description

In the ongoing saga of bureaucratic control, misuse of money and personnel, lies, and failures, not of the children but of the leaders, educators,and businesses that control education, author James Lake firmly presents the truth versus the ideology in this comprehensive book. Throughout Our Schools and Education: The War Zone in America, he includes the problems bureaucrats create and what we can do to reclaim our schools. He shows workable and realistic solutions to help answer the pressing problems facing our children. He invites everyone, teachers, parents, and the young and old, to be part of the positive effort instead of adding to the existing dilemma buy doing nothing, allowing the bureaucrats to continue to control massive amounts of money meant to help our youth. This book is an eye-opener and should be read by every American that believes in the educational traditions that have made our nation great. With the help of teachers, parents and communities we can set aside the educational socialism forced upon us by Washingto D.C. and revers our present direction, returning education to our communities. We must maintain the America that our parents knew and created and not succumb to being a one world government. We will teach our youth to love America and to cherish our history and what America has stood for. The key to this is our support for what is right for our children and our nation. Our schools must teach the three "Rs" but also history, science, the arts, technology, vocational classes, and give our youth a very broad and realistic education. We must not teach to a test nor national standards. This book exposes the problems and gives answers to the needed solutions that every parent and teacher should be aware and active in their implementation. Our Schools and Education: The War Zone in America identifies the problems and presents the solutions to these issues so that educational socialism will be done away with and our communities will once again control and direct our schools, reestablishing and maintaining the greatness that has been our nations. May God bless America.