An effective manual for parents who want to establish a pro-learning mindset and develop concrete strategies for helping...
A longtime teacher and principal guides parents through the basics of supporting and enriching childhood education.
Casale, who has written his first book after a half-century working in education, brings an upbeat attitude to this guide for parents looking to help their children succeed in school. The book leads readers through both the mindset necessary to foster a learning environment (Casale encourages parents to develop a family-based mission statement that makes education a priority and to periodically assess their own performance as well as their children’s) and the more practical aspects of forming one, from ensuring that homework is completed to the components of a successful parent-teacher conference. Casale draws on many examples from his own years in the classroom and the principal’s office, which brings a from-the-trenches credibility to his observations and recommendations. Citations from Daniel Goleman, Alfie Kohn and other experts add support, too. One of the book’s key themes is that children cannot be compelled to learn, a point Casale often makes with wry humor: “Aside from torture, coercion, bribes, canceling cable and all electronics, or forcing your child to listen to Yanni, your chances of forcing your child to read a book are slim to none.” His frequent criticism of electronics—“a thief that steals precious time from our children”; “Limit TV, video games, and any other electronics that are mindless and a waste of precious time”; “Cell phones for children under sixteen should be used for emergencies or talking to family members only”—may be a point of contention for readers not so opposed to technology. On the whole, however, Casale gives parents a reassuring, big-picture look at how they, even more than teachers, shape their children’s attitudes to learning. By reminding readers that “even caring and loving parents must learn” how to create a home environment that supports learning, the book establishes itself as a legitimate, useful parenting tool.
An effective manual for parents who want to establish a pro-learning mindset and develop concrete strategies for helping their children succeed in school.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482086386
Page Count: 140
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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