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S.O.S.

Name: S.O.S.
Author: Lynn Stoddard
ISBN: 978-1-61493-547-6

STUDENT ORIENTED SCHOOLS

by Lynn Stoddard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 25, 2017

A thought-provoking but potentially controversial plan for revamping the American public school system.

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An ambitious call for a top-to-bottom revamping of American education.

Educator Stoddard (Opinions of a Maverick Educator, 2016, etc.) begins this brief but sweeping manifesto with three stark assertions: that standardized, high school classroom curricula drastically underserve students by enforcing conformity, that a radically new system would accentuate the individuality and potential of each student, and that the existence of the U.S. Department of Education is unconstitutional. In place of the traditional educational curriculum—in which students in kindergarten through 12th grades are taught a standard set of subjects, including math, science, English, and history—Stoddard envisions a program called “Educating for Human Greatness,” which “makes it possible for every student to excel in what they were born to be good at doing” by emphasizing eight specific qualities, including Identity (“The power of knowing who we are as special contributors to society”), Inquiry (“The powers of curiosity and effective investigation”), and Interaction (“The powers of caring communication and healthy relationships”). These qualities would form the basis of a student-centered educational model featuring “wise mentors” in “home-room advisory” classes across the country. Under his program, all classes would be elective, traditional graduation requirements would be abolished, and numerous new class topics would replace the customary core curriculum. Stoddard presents his plan in consistently clear and accessible prose. However, no amount of clarity will deflect likely objections by seasoned educators, or even by parents who remember initially disliking core curriculum subjects that they now enjoy—or use to make a living. Stoddard’s system not only assumes that all students are forward-thinking, aspirational, and in love with learning, but also calls for massive school-funding increases of a type that only the federal government, of which he’s strongly critical, can pay for. Readers will have to assess how much of the author’s dream they share, which seems to employ wishful thinking about a post-grades future.

A thought-provoking but potentially controversial plan for revamping the American public school system.

Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-61493-547-6

Page Count: 92

Publisher: The Peppertree Press

Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2019

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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THE AFGHAN AMULET

TRAVELS FROM THE HINDU KUSH TO RAZGRAD

by Sheila Paine ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1994

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On a quest to discover the origins of an exquisite embroidered robe and amulet she found in London, British textile expert Paine chronicles her journeys from Pakistan to Bulgaria through some of the world's wildest outposts of civilization. Determined to track down the source of a tribal dress that protects women against evil spirits, Paine ventures as a lone, vulnerable woman through remote areas of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Turkey, and Bulgaria she travels armed only with photos of the embroidery, five kilos of luggage, a bottle of vodka, the Afghan amulet around her neck, and cash sewn into her bra and socks. She wends her way by bus, jeep, and hitchhiker's luck through police checks and villages where camels and Kalashinkovs are everyday sights and women's embroidery and crimson sunsets are the only vibrancy in a barren rockscape. A widow in her 60s, Paine stays in homes with bullet-ridden mud walls and in hotels without water, electricity, bedding, phone, or cutlery where she barricades her door to keep out lecherous nocturnal visitors. Babies cry at the sight of her and men either pelt her with rocks or gallantly protect and then assault her. She sneaks into Iran through a Khomeini-crowned gate and is smuggled into Iraq, where Saddam has a bounty on Westerners' heads. Under the protective guises of widowhood, motherhood, and local costume, she enters women's domestic sanctums to view their handiwork. In lyrical prose she describes lands ravaged by extreme seasons and political turmoil, where men discuss nuclear weapons and dowries, and women, hidden by veils, have 18 children while supporting their families. Ultimately, Paine's textile quest, which is solved with a twist, merely provides a pretext for a fascinating and beautifully written account of an odyssey through extreme physical, cultural, and spiritual wildernesses. Paine displays the courage of a frontierswoman and the prose of a poet, making this indispensable for hearty travelers. (3 linecuts and 5 maps)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-312-11236-X

Page Count: 304

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

M.F.K. FISHER, JULIA CHILD, AND ALICE WATERS

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M.F.K. FISHER, JULIA CHILD, AND ALICE WATERS

CELEBRATING THE PLEASURES OF THE TABLE

by Joan Reardon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 12, 1994

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Pedestrian mini-biographies of three women who are household names among members of the Cuisinart set. Although Reardon (Oysters: A Culinary Celebration, not reviewed) clearly esteems her subjects, all of whom she met while preparing this book, her narratives lack the necessary spark to make them more than the sum of their many — and not always interesting — details. While she records meetings among the women, she does not weave the three biographies into a coherent whole exploring the US culinary scene. Instead, she follows M.F.K. Fisher from youth through three husbands (material about her menage a trois with husband number one and future husband number two made it into The Gastronomical Me), the Depression-era beginnings of her writing career, and friendship with Julia Child, whom she met as a co-contributor to a book on provincial French cooking. Child's career took off while she lived in Paris, where she met Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who wanted to produce a "big book" introducing American audiences to French cooking. Joining in with the willingness to work and the enthusiasm that later endeared her to television audiences, Child was instrumental in shaping what became the landmark Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The least appealing portrait is that of Alice Waters, who comes across as self-absorbed. Converted to fine dining during a student trip to France, Waters tried, on returning to Berkeley, to persuade fellow activists there to spruce up their menus, arguing that even striking French communists were discriminating eaters. With determination, she and her mostly novice employees made a success of their imaginative restaurant in Berkeley's "gourmet ghetto," and by the time The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook was published in 1982, Waters was, as Reardon notes, "So In, We Could Die." Strictly for the adoring fans of these culinary celebrities. Others will find it indigestible.