WHERE ARE WE?

This miscellany of succinct essays brings a veteran educator’s liberal perspectives to a variety of contemporary issues ranging from national politics to the therapeutic benefits of tennis.

Despite the mild self-effacement in his book’s subtitle, Tretten writes with confidence and an intellectual acuity that reveals no age-related mental slackening. A longtime Bay-area educator, he collects around six dozen brief essays that he sorts into “Society,” “Politics,” “Economics,” “Education” and “Sports.” Those delineations are far from absolute—his progressive political opinions tend to swim across categories. An essay on regular tennis matches with friends shifts quickly into a meditation on ways to prevent political differences among players from contaminating the joy of the sport. Likewise, Tretten’s thoughts about education drift into his critique of ignoble American economic institutions. What holds the book together is Tretten’s generally amiable tone that bridges the apparent contradictions in his personality: he’s a high-brow intellectual with a PhD in education from Stanford University, yet simple vocabulary and conversational vernacular run throughout; he’s emphatic in believing the verity of his liberal politics, yet he’s unafraid to criticize liberal politicians. For someone who has spent most of his long life in public schools as an educator and administrator, he seems relatively disinterested in “hot-button” education issues like educational technology, charter schools and homeschooling. Tretten admits that he’s far more astute in diagnosing the world’s problems than in offering detailed solutions. With his opinions about schools, crime, spending and lifelong learning, he intends to spark reader self-examination and even cross-generational discussions.

Marked by wit and a determination to unflinchingly look at America’s challenges, Tretten’s book offers a generous assortment of liberal mini-editorials that will entertain any political camp.