Everyone has heard of "Why Johnny Can't Read" by Rudolf Flesch. It's still a wonderful, worthwhile read, even after 55 years.
But it is only one of DOZENS of equally smart, sincere books written by people who felt compelled to explain the failings of our public schools.The common pattern is curiosity followed by stunned amazement. People with no particular involvement in education find themselves confronting policies and results that don't make any sense. What's going on here?! Is this the best we can do?!
For example, Flesch was a lawyer with a Ph.D. in linguistics. A neighbor asked him to tutor a child who was having trouble with reading. The twelve-year-old stared long and hard at "kid" and said "kind." A small thing, you might think, but Flesch reacted this way: "I tell you, it staggered me." He thought that nobody raised in Europe could make this mistake (adding an n-sound when it's not there). Flesch was so fascinated he spent the next few years studying the disaster known as Whole Word, and finally wrote his famous book.
Consider Albert Lynd, a Harvard-educated businessman in Massachusetts. His children were in the public schools; he drifted into being on the school board. At this point it was as though Alice had fallen into Wonderland. Lynd found the world of public education so nutty he went on to write a book called "QUACKERY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS," one of the earliest indictments of the malpractice committed by our Education Establishment.
I've reviewed many of these books (plus a few by people in the Education Establishment). The most interesting books have been collected in a Listmania list on Amazon called "40 Important Books About Education."
This list consists of 40 short blurbs. You can read all 40 blurbs in less than five minutes. When a blurb catches your interest, read the reviews by me and other people. If you're still interested, order the book on Amazon.
So this list is an easy, fast way to become familiar with the best books about education.
Google this phrase: 40 Important Books About Education.
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http://www.amazon.com/40-Important-Books... )
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To give a sense of the list, here are about half the titles:
Leipzig Connection
Why Johnny Still Can't Read
And Madly Teach
The Victims of Dick and Jane
Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education
Toward Soviet America
The Great Reading Disaster: Reclaiming Our Educational Birthright
NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education
Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers
Bending the Twig: The Revolution in Education and Its Effect on Our Children
The Art of Teaching
Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, or Add
New Illiterates and How You Can Keep Your Child from Becoming One
The "new" math for teachers and parents of elementary school children
Retreat from learning: Why teachers can't teach
So Little For The Mind
The Conspiracy of Ignorance: The Failure of American Public Schools
War Against Schools' Academic Child Abuse
Reflections on the Failure of Socialism
Storm in the Mountains: A Case Study of Censorship, Conflict, and Consciousness
Critical Thinking
1000 Instant Words: The Most Common Words for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling
EDUCATIONAL WASTELANDS: The Retreat from Learning in Our Public Schools
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(For articles on many of the same topics, visit the writer's site
Improve-Education.org.)
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