One can agree with most of Merrow’s points without seeing the path forward to the more studentcentric schools he envisions.
From an award-winning career as an education correspondent, Merrow (The Influence of Teachers, 2011, etc.) sees a nation desperately in need of recovery from addiction to testing and pouring good money after bad.
There is no quick fix for our failed schools, writes the author, who has won the George Polk Award and two George Foster Peabody Awards. Instead, we need radical reform of a system that has become obsessed with data and metrics, with graduation and dropout rates that can be easily manipulated, and with schools that would rather their students be obedient and easily controlled, regurgitating the facts they have been fed, than to have their creativity and intellectual curiosity unleashed. Employing the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous as the organizing principle for his manifesto, he writes, “I am convinced that we as a nation are ‘hooked’ on what we hope will be quick fixes for deep systemic problems. We are in denial.” The comparison and the book’s format only work to a point, as Merrow’s analysis, not surprisingly, does a better job detailing the problem than the solution. The major problem, as so many have previously suggested, is that standardized testing encourages teachers to teach to the test rather than engage young minds, particularly when those test results will be used to evaluate those teachers. There is big money in those testing services and in school reform in general, some of it going to administrators who are stronger on rhetoric than on real education, some to the likes of Amazon and Apple for technology that is often misused or misunderstood, and some to big pharma within the overdiagnosed, pill-popping culture that would prefer to see students medicated than stimulated. The author mixes his diagnoses and prescriptions with four decades of anecdotes and reporting, insisting that the current system “is flawed beyond repair.”
One can agree with most of Merrow’s points without seeing the path forward to the more studentcentric schools he envisions.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62097-241-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
On the doorstep of age 90, Edmund has performed a national service.
An authoritative examination into the collapse of the scientific method in American education and intellectual life, and the resulting collateral damage.
Edmund writes with verve, and adds more than a dollop of spice by offering $100,000 to certain organizations that prove him wrong. He doggedly advances the notion that America’s egghead community–led by influential intellectuals such as James B. Conant (Harvard president, 1933-1953)–perpetrated a monumental blunder in denigrating the use of the scientific method. In turn, writes Edmund, Conant’s crowd opened the doors to the slipshod thinking that has ruined American education. Fads such as “look-say reading instruction,” “new math” and “new new math” followed in a confusing progression that continues to this day in charter schools and the self-esteem movement. Edmund contends that researchers, using scientific methods, should have halted the process in its tracks by determining quickly the winners and losers among these trendy programs, rather than falling for the “do your own thing” philosophy espoused by Conant and crew. Furthermore, the trial and error method taught by natural philosophers and used by classical scientists has not lost its relevance in a “do as you please” world. Edmund is dumfounded by educators’ unwillingness to use testing and analysis to determine what works best in the classroom. Instead, he writes, the useless debate continues unabated, and the blunder continues its proliferation.
On the doorstep of age 90, Edmund has performed a national service.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-9632866-6-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Adorable characters demonstrate the unselfish qualities of true friendship.
A bear’s epic quest for the Golden Pear illuminates valuable life lessons.
Lee (The Cake Thief, 2008, etc.) returns with a spirited animal fable for preschool children that sheds light on basic moral principles. Magdalena is a cuddly white bear who sets off on a quest to find the Golden Pear. She is told by a “reliable source” that before she finds it, she must first learn a few simple lessons about life. Magdalena seeks out the advice of her friends. Edwin the Ant is unable to provide any answers but requests help carrying sand he’ll use to build his home. Henry the Butterfly, with his pink polka dot wings, is equally clueless but needs assistance catching bugs for dinner. Next, Magdalena encounters Samantha the Snake, who doesn’t know much about life lessons. In fact, Samantha doesn’t even know the directions to her own home. Malcolm the Mouse is gathering nuts and seeds for winter, and Magdalena pitches in before moving on to Francine the Fish. But Francine needs to clean up her polluted pond. Although she is quite happy to help her friends out, Magdalena is disheartened when she discovers she is no closer to discovering the location of her much sought-after Golden Pear. Hungry and tired, she heads home. Along the way, she stops to nap beneath a tree that is suddenly filled with golden pears. Magdalena delights in finding the elusive fruit and realizes that she’s discovered life’s simple lessons, and more so, the “secrets of the universe.” Charcoal and color pencil illustrations display soft, chunky crayon-like, folk appeal. Simple full and partial page designs warmly interact with the text’s mood and movement. Although references to the “reliable source” and the “secrets of the universe” are too advanced for the book’s intended audience, the overall effect is both inviting and endearing.
Adorable characters demonstrate the unselfish qualities of true friendship.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2003
ISBN: 978-1594575266
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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