Book Description

A prominent educator draws on experiences from his life and illustrious career to offer an impassioned critique of American schools—and the current central government assertion of authority over what had long been a local and regional concern

This engaging and important book is a critique of American education wrapped in a memoir. Drawing on his fifty years as teacher, principal, researcher, professor, and dean, Theodore R. Sizer identifies three crucial areas in which policy discussion about public education has been dangerously silent. He argues that we must break that silence and rethink how to educate our youth.

Sizer discusses our failure to differentiate between teaching and learning, noting that formal schooling must adapt to and confront the powerful influences found outside traditional classrooms. He examines the practical as well as philosophical necessity for sharing policy-making authority among families, schools, and centralized governments. And he denounces our fetish with order, our belief that the familiar routines that have existed for generations are the only way to bring learning to children. Sizer provides alternatives to these failed routines—guidelines for creating a new educational system that would, among other things, break with wasteful traditional practice, utilize agencies and arrangements beyond the school building, and design each child’s educational program around his or her particular needs and potential.

“A forceful, hard-hitting, and sensibly directed critique of American schooling, one that also sets forth a convincing plan for reform that policy-makers, parents, and general readers need to consider.”—Gerald Graff, author of Clueless in Academe

Theodore R. Sizer is the founder and chairman emeritus of the Coalition of Essential Schools, a national network of schools and centers engaged in restructuring and redesigning schools. University Professor Emeritus at Brown University and Visiting Professor of Education at Harvard University and Brandeis University, he is the author of many books, including Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School.
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Book Description

The acclaimed author of the best-selling The Road from Coorain and True North now gives us the third book in her remarkable continuing memoir—describing the pleasures, the challenges, and the constant surprises (good and bad) of her years as the first woman president of Smith College.

The story opens in 1973 as Conway, unbeknownst to her, is first “looked over” as a prospective candidate by members of the Smith community, and continues as she assesses her passions and possibilities and agrees to the new challenge of heading the college in 1975. The jolt of energy she gets from being surrounded by several thousand young women enables her to take on the difficulties that arise in dealing with the diverse Smith constituencies—from the self-appointed protectors of the great male tradition of humanistic learning to the equally determined young feminists insisting on change. We see Conway juggling the needs and concerns of faculty, students, parents, trustees, and alumnae, and re-defining and redesigning aspects of the college to create programs in line with the new realities of women’s lives. We sense the urgency of her efforts to shape an institution that will attract students of the 1990s and beyond.

Through it all we see Jill Ker Conway coping with her husband’s illness, and learning to protect and sustain her inner self. As the end of a decade at Smith approaches, we see her realizing that she has both had her education and made her contributions, and that it is time now for her to graduate.
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Reviews (7)

Fantastic
This is the most thought-provoking book in Jill Ker Conway's series of autobiographies. While the first book centered heavily on Conway's emotional development and the second book dealt mainly with her intellectual development, in the third book she describes her changing world and academic perspectives. In A Woman's Education, Conway really challenges her readers to think critically about how women should be educated, the role of a private women's college, and ultimately what it means to be successful as a female.
A previous reviewer mentioned that they felt like they were reading a textbook while reading A Woman's Education. While this book definitely has a more academic tone, it does not resemble a textbook in any other way. Instead, reading through A Woman's Education, feels a lot more like being in an intimate college class taught by Conway.

Academic Leadership and Management
If you are involved as a university alum in one or many of your alma mater's boards, directorates, planning committees and/or fund raising campaigns, you will find it fascinating to learn from Ms. Conway what it was like from her perspective to head a major US college for ten years. It doesn't always happen that such a dynamic academic leader is also a talented writer--and takes the time to write a book about it.

I REALLY LOVE THIS BOOK
AND I FELT REALLY CONNECTED TO THE AUTHOR

I really can't explain my feelings in words. Look at the subject first then read on. They are all by Dr. Jill Ker Conway (shes a phd). The titles are The Road from Coorain (also a Exxon Mobil Masterpiece Theater movie as well), True North, and A Women's Education. Is she orginally from New South Wales, Australia. Came to the United States for graduate school, but stayed there after that, but was Canada as well for 6 years. Boys you will also love reading them as well. Thank you.

Reads like a textbook
When first told of this book, I looked forward to reading about a woman who had achieved such a position - the first female president of Smith College. I was soon very disappointed, and am not certain exactly how I waded through the 143 pages. "A Woman's Education" gave me no insight into the person who is Jill Kerr Conway. I do not know her any better than I did prior to reading this book. (I have not read her prior two books) Her concentration appeared to be focused on the male-dominated educational system, and the fact that she is a feminist and wanted Smith College to be known as a feminist insititution. One hundred and forty-three pages is a little overly long to drill this message into a reader's brain.

It would have been more interesting to know about Jill Kerr Conway. While she does describe her struggles with an aging faculty and touches on the backbiting politics of Smith College in the mid-1970's, she comes across as a person completely devoid of any human emotion. Even her husband's bi-polar condition and her mother's death are treated as mere facts and the reader is left wondering what, if anything, Jill Kerr Conway truly felt about these traumatic events occuring in her life at the same time as taking over the position of president at Smith College. I came away from this book knowing only that Jill Kerr Conway considers herself a feminist, that her major area of study was history, and nothing more. Surely, no one is that uninteresting?

The feel of this book reads as a textbook, and it seems Ms. Conway wrote it more from the position of a history professor than from a more human aspect. This is the type of book that a Women's Studies professor would deem required reading, and I truly felt that it is to those students who Ms. Conway was writing to.

a pale follow-up
Conway's previous autobiographical installments, "The Road From Coorain" and "True North," were wonderful. I found them lyrical and insightful. At the risk of hyperbole, they should be considered classics in the genre of autobiography. "A Woman's Education" simply doesn't attain that status. The focus of the book is more limited and vastly different from the previous installments. It truly seems more of a paean to Smith College. This is all well and good, but not what I was expecting.

The insights into Conway's character seemed oddly lacking. While she discusses at great length the politics involved in governing the various backbiting academics at the college, very little is mentioned about her mother's death (which she notes was very disturbing to her given their difficult relationship), little is mentioned (other than superficially) of her husband's battle with depression and her abilities to handle that as well as her presidential chores, and little is made of her husband's neurological illness and how that affected both of their lives. In short, I found her discussion of her interior life to be superficial -- quite unlike her first two installments. And her interior life is what makes her a remarkable person. I'd like to know what made her tick during this time period in her life, but I don't feel that I got any of that from this book.

This book is a polemical for women's separate education. Although I agree with Conway that Smith and other institutions like it fulfill a great void in this country (and in the world, for that matter), I didn't expect this book to be so overwhelmingly devoted to the topic. At times I felt it was one big recruitment tract -- whether to attract more students or to attract more funding for the school, I haven't quite decided. ... Read more

Book Description

Autobiography of influential spokesman and former slave who became a major figure in the struggle for equal rights.
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Reviews (44)

A classic with relevant lessons for today
I found this to be a most amazing work. In telling the story of going from a child of slavery to the founder and president of the Tuskegee institute, Mr. Washington illustrates for us the life-lessons which can empower any individual or race in our free society today.

Namely, look to your neighbor in love, not anger; recognize the nobility in working hard for something rather than expecting charity; be willing to give yourself to a greater cause; believe that people are capable of great things and they will live up to your expectations; recognize the importance of education, not just of the mind, but of the body and soul as well; recognize that any man who provides value to the community in which he lives will be accepted and even welcomed into that community; and above all, trust in God to care for your needs.

I highly recommend this book as a testament to the positive result of thinking from a perspective of Love and Abundance rather than Anger and Scarcity. When Mr. Washington's humility is measured against his accomplishments, he becomes in my eyes one of the greatest Americans to have lived.

the beautiful Booker Taliaferro Washington
Let me start off by saying I'm a 16 year old female...

Upon looking through the history section of the store I discovered "Up From Slavery", the autobiography of Booker T. Washington. I could easily recall reading about him in US history. Interested, I decided to buy it.. Well I ended up staying up all night reading this book.

Washington entails his life story of endeavers and prosperity gained. He describes of how he raised himself up from slavery through sacrifices and struggles. With the self-reward of obtaining education he decided to develope the Tuskegee Institution to help further educate his peoples. As well he established a bond between, not only blacks and whites, but southerners and northerners (during post-civil war times). He talks on how as people, one should educate themselves not only in books but in labor as well. In doing so, one will achieve full-on success.

"Up from Slavery" enlightened me so much more on Washington and his role in shaping the free life we as americans, live today. I have gained an enormous amount of respect for this intriguingly compelling man. I really do feel a great sensation of pride in our history when I think about Washington and his achievements for this nation. Beautiful.

What a Legacy!
Booker T. Washington lived his life on target. He had a purpose and he made a lasting contribution. Washington was a Christian, a scholar, a motivator, a writer, an educator, a role model, a scientist, and more. Look at his life, what he wrote and how he approached life and you will see similarities between his thoughts and those of other achievers. Such individuals usually: read extensively, travel widely, and pursue education. This book is loaded with Christian success principles that transcend time and location. I found this book to be extremely inspiring. What would BTW do if he had the internet?

the beautiful Booker Taliaferro Washington
Let me start off by letting you know I am a 16 year old...

Upon looking through the history section of the bookstore I came across "Up From Slavery", the autobiography of Booker T. Washington. I could easily recall reading about him in US history. Interested, I decided to buy it.. Well I ended up staying up all night reading this book... Washington entails his life story of endeavers and prosperity gained. He describes of how he raised himself up from slavery through sacrifices and struggles. With the self-reward of obtaining education he decided to develope the Tuskegee Institution to help further educate his peoples. As well he established a bond between, not only blacks and whites, but southerners and northerners (during post-civil war times). He talks on how as people, one should educate themselves not only in books but in labor as well. In doing so, one will achieve full-on success. "Up from Slavery" enlightened me so much more on Washington. I have gained an enormous amount of respect for this intriguingly compelling man. I really do feel a great sensation of pride in our history when I think about Washington and his achievements for this nation. Beautiful.

An Extraordinary Struggle Fueled by Boundless Optimism!
A riveting account of Washington's extraordinary struggle fueled by boundless optimism.

However, Washington's faith appears overly buoyant when he writes the following about the Ku Klux Klan: 'To-day there are no such organizations in the South, and the fact that such ever existed is almost forgotten by both races. There are few places in the South now where public sentiment would permit such organizations to exist.'

Of course, a hundred years later the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations are alive and well in the U.S.

I was surprised to discover that this book - although published in 1901 - employs British (rather than American) spellings for words such as "labour" (labor) and "colour" (color).

This is an important document of its time that must be read by anyone with the mildest interest in world history and the human condition that shapes it. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Initiation
This is the most influencing book of my life I read it frequently again & again-and allways I feel new uplifting knowledge coming to me. I bought this book in many different language-last in Russian--becouse its THE GIFT that I give all whom I love.Where so ever i am this book is with me-no-most of the time I give it to somebody to read-becouse it is a sin if this great book ist standing somewere -It should go from one to the other-and now I will buy it again in english -I have some friends here who can not read it in Russian Danish oder Deutsch-so I'm happy that I can order it in Englisch-think i will first order 'only' 3 of it. And then one more in Deutsch to send it my dear Mother--yes you see there a big storry between me and the book/autor...my e-mail is Purusha@gmx.de and sometimes I get letters frome people who love this book/knowledge same like me. Many people I give this book -once they open it they do not stop ontill the last page war readed. So now by it and enjoy--see you in THE SELF-ALLES LIEBE heinz sorry for my bad english

Enlightening Must-Read
I, like many others, was told I had to read this book. I purchased it within days and literally inhaled the wisdom and truth that unfolded from its pages. I have just begun my spiritual journey in earnest and this book has pushed me further than any other reading has thus far. I felt I had lived it. as often I knew what the author would say before reading the printed words. I have since recommended it to others and found out it is no longer in print...as it turns out I picked up the last copy in a Tri-city area. I knew then I was chosen to receive this knowledge and I know I will refer to its guidance for my lifetime and plan to share it with as many as I can so we can all be a part of healing our souls and bring our lives closer to our creator...This novel has influenced me in a positively spiritual way.

wow.
if you've been given this book, or recommended it by a friend then you've been blessed. this book is bizarre, yes, but if it finds its way to you i'm sure you won't be troubled by that minor detail. thank you Elisabeth Haich, for this book - it's a gift - i can't possibly explain in words the effect this book had on my life, nevermind fathom how the author used words to discuss topics which have traditionally defied discussion. i still can't believe that this book actually exists, but i'm eternally thankful it does.

careful with such books...
Elisabeth Haich's Initiation truly counts to the few gems in esoteric writings. I just wanted to utter a general warning - "You can't unread a book" - once you have read it your subconsciousness will work with the information you have gathered and it can easily push you into a higher stage of consciousness...

reflecting over Initiation
This was a book that I couldn't put down. It is a magical book. If you happen to stumble upon it, don't think that it is by chance. If movies like The Matrix, Vanilla Sky, and The True Man show intrigued and fascinated you, this book is for you. Besides from being entertaining, it gives detailed accounts on the hows of preparing for Initiation with excercises ranging from pin-pointed concentration to telepathy. A Must for anyone who is truly interested in Awakening... ... Read more

Book Description

A REVEALING MEMOIR FROM ONE OF THE TOP FIGURES IN 20TH CENTURY EDUCATION

Educator, philosopher, and author of more than 20 books, John I. Goodlad has been the source of many of the seminal ideas in public education in North America. In this absorbing account of a life devoted to educating children, Goodlad paints a portrait of the North American educational system and its evolution over most of the past century.

Interlacing fascinating details from Goodlad's life with reflections on the philosophy and practice of education, Romances with Schools takes readers on a journey beginning during the Great Depression in the one-room schoolhouse where Goodlad began his education, through his years as a teacher and educational activist in the 1940s and '50s, and up through his tenure as dean of Graduate Education at UCLA. Along the way, he explores important issues in education, such as the value of grade-assigned schooling, the role of examinations and standardized testing, the fundamental aims of education, and how education in America can and must be improved.

Book Description

Here is the autobiography of a remarkable man. Yukichi Fukuzawa's life covered the 66 years between 1835 and 1901, a period which comprised greater and more extraordinary changes than any other in the history of Japan. In his country's swift transformation from an isolated feudal state to a full-fledged member of the modern world, Fukuzawa played a leading role: he was the educator of the new Japan, the man who above all others explained to his countrymen the ideas behind the dazzling material evidence of Western civilization.Dictated by Fukuzawa in 1897, this book vividly relates his story, from his childhood as a member of the lower samurai class in a small, caste-bound village. His escape from the hopeless destiny decreed by his social position, his adventures as a student of Dutch (the language of the only Westerners allowed in Japan), his travels aboard the first Japanese ship to sail to America -all prepared Fukuzawa to write Seiyo¯ Ji¯jo¯ (Things Western), the book which made him famous. His special perspective on Japan's tempestuous 19th century gives Fukuzawa's life story added fascination. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Yes!
This is the best book I've ever read in my life. Err... It's the only book I've read in my entire life. I know that sounds sad, but I'm simply not a big reader. I mean I read textbooks and reference material, I read the news. But I just don't read books. We were assigned this book for a Japanese history class I'm taking this semester, and you can imagine my worries when I found out we were to read all 330 pages of it in a mere 2 weeks! I dreaded the 4th week of class when this torture would begin! So I decided to start reading it on a plane to Florida, a week or two before it was assigned, because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish all of it in only 2 weeks. And guess what? I read it TWICE before it was due.

His memory is so vivid and clear, even 60 years later. This book gives his accounts of growing up in the land of Samurai and emperors. he lived through the Meiji Resotration and died around the turn of the century. This is THE man responsible for making Japan what it is today. Had Fukuzawa not lived, perhaps Japan would be on the so-called "axis of evil" today. Fukuzawa opened the eyes of society to Western learning, trained all the teachers of the future to promote Western learning and welcome and open-door policy with the West.

But we also such a human side of him. We really learn what it means to be loyal by reading this book. He is perhaps the most loyal and honorable man I can imagine, and you would imagine someone like this to be rather into formalities, especially in Japan where honor and formality are closely intertwined. But then we see him urinating on a sacred symbol in one of the first chapters of the book! He really defied the thought of the time, and the world is definitely a better place because of his life. Anyone interested in Japan should read this book.

Excellent Autobiography
I had to read this book for a college history course. I thought it would be a drag but I loved it! Once I started it I couldn't put it down. I liked it so much that I went out and bought my own copy. This is an excellent book about a remarkable man. Buy it and you will not be sorry.

Very inspiring life. Well worth reading.
This book gives an inside look at a crucial period in Japan's transformation from a feudal state to a modern one, so called Meiji period. Fukuzawa's is a true exemplary life. One had to copy texbooks by hand, study day and night with scant clothing and food, distingush seasons by pest (fleas in summer, lice otherwise)and yet he achieved much. He establish first private university in Japan, established a newspaper, and was influental writer and teacher. Most importantly, he succeeded without compromising his principles. With leaders like this it is no wander that Japan became a world power in a very short time. One finshes the book with the feeling that that is how a really worthwhile life is lived. Inspiring. ... Read more

Book Description

The 1986 Teacher of the Year shares a moving message on the power of encouragement and love.

Mass Paper ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Inspirational Book for Teachers
Guy Doud was 1986 teacher of the year. Hailing from Brainerd, Minnesota, he writes of his difficult experiences growing up and how his teachers and peers affected him.

Doud demonstrates that teachers are the molders or destroyers of dreams. All of us, then, are teachers and we are letters to others simply by our actions.

As teachers, we can write letters of hope and encouragement or failure and distress, on the hearts of those we meet.

Doud challenges the reader to ask whether they want to be remembered for a letter that is positive or negative.

Moulder of Dreams--a teacher's inspiration
This book was recommended to me after I was selected as high school teacher of the year for our school district. Being a Christian and an educator, I was so inspired by the feelings of this wonderful author and person. Doud shares his personal feelings about his students and his passion for teaching. It is easy to see how he eventually became national teacher of the year. I recommend this book to anyone who has a desire to make a difference in the field of education. It is truly inspiring.

Wonderful Motivator for present teachers and teachers-to-be
I first saw Guy Doud's video Molder of Dreams a few years ago, and I was in awe of the passion he has for his career and for the students he reaches. I read this book after seeing the video and was gripped even more intensely by reading a more detailed account of some of the experiences his video touches on. Doud refers to himself as a 'feeler' in his field therefore trying to reach beyond just the 'three R's' of schooling. Doud is an excellent write and is an expert at touching heartstrings through his words. I was at the point of tears and laughing out loud at different places throughout this book. This is one of those books I've read several times--especially when I've gottne frustrated with the teaching courses I'm taking to become a teacher. I can't wait to read Doud's other works. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Read This Book Once a Year
I am a teacher of 18 years who had to read this book in 1977 as part of my college teacher training and would like to share this book with all teachers. It is as relevant for me today with our scripted phonics and literature-rich reading programs as it was then. Sylia Ashton-Warner does more than portray a method and philosophy to teach reading to New Zealand's Maori children--she paints a vivid, dramatic picture of any classroom. The reader can see the combination of her daily, organized lesson plan superimposed with the actual unpredictable, spontaneous, and social nature of children. Sylvia writes in such a perceptive, humorous way that our sympathy goes out to the Maori children who are expected to learn reading, but are expertly led, not forced.
One of her main points was that the contemporary "Dick and Jane" method of teaching reading was too imposing, stagnant, and foreign to inspire success and a love of learning for her Maori students. She created a new system to do the job of bridging the old, illiterate civilization of the Maoris to contemporary New Zealand. Her method became famous. It is fairly simple and has been used since in a multitude of kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms. Children were allowed to give Ms. Ashton-Warner, their teacher, a new word every day. The word was traced, written, practiced, shared, and reviewed the next day. If the word was important enough to the child, it was remembered and therefore called an "organic" word since it came from an important part of the individual child. Children had word cards and every day would locate their own personal word cards amidst the class' collection.
As Ms. Ashton-Warner used this method over time, she was able to categorize important words, and thereby came across universal truths regarding words that made reading easier for her students. The two widest categories she called "sex" and "fear" words, and if a word was easily learned then it fit into one of these categories. Although I personally don't like her use of the word "sex," she explains her conception of it as referring to the human needs of love, acceptance, and survival.
As students became proficient with this first introduction to words, they were "graduated" to more advanced classes in reading and writing, using their own personal word banks, until at last the traditional school books could be used successfully. In addition, Ms. Ashton-Warner wrote and illustrated her own version of basal readers for Maoris, using their own interests and lingo, as another part of transitioning them from their own culture to the literate and modern New Zealand. It is tragic that most of her original works are gone.
In actuality, the book "Teacher" is much more than a description of a pedagogical method. It is a work of art, describing the talent needed to teach. It is a work in psychology, showing one how to cope with the enormous diversity and constant problems of the real classroom. It is a work of teaching methodology, inspiring a teacher to value and inspire the inner thoughts and feelings of a child, and to take those raw materials and create real learning experiences for that child.
I actually read this book once a year. It has become a part of me that allows me to take each day as it comes, to see special inspired moments in a child's day as being a huge, poignant step in their education.

A passionate, thought-provoking story by a great teacher.
Hard for me to write a short review of this book since I've written a book about Ashton-Warner's contributions to teaching young children.

The point is, Ashton-Warner was a careful observer of the young Maori children she taught. She knew that what she had been trained to do in a college teacher-training program wasn't working, so she really looked to see what the children cared about, and invented ways to teach them based upon their deep interests and respecting their culture, different from her own. She, a left-handed artist, was different from the mainstream, and wanted to be appreciated...and she carried this and other knowledge from her personal life into her teaching. Ashton-Warner wasn't a woman of perfection, but she made a contribution that lasts...This book has changed the lives of many, many teachers -- I know because they have told me. ... Read more

Book Description

Leading complex organizations is never easy or simple. In this book, Art Padilla uses the university as the organizational vehicle through which to examine the phenomenon of leadership and followership in complex entities. The unique characteristics of universities as organizations are discussed and the leadership experiences of six well-known university presidents are analyzed within an orignal framework of leadership. Just as John Kennedy's Profiles of Courage considered the notion of political courage within the institutional setting of Congress, this book explores leadership within the context of the modern American university. The roles of persuasion and communication are highlighted as the author weaves the principal patterns from each of the six case studies to the situational conditions that faced these extraordinary individuals. Padilla offers valuable suggestions on how to improve selection of leaders and increase organizational effectiveness. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

An original study on leadership.
I'm the head of a small, non-profit organization so I was not sure whether this book would actually be of much interest. But as one of the reviewers on the book-jacket writes, this book should be very useful to people outside universities as well. It is well-written and very engaging. What makes it especially appealing is the author's ability to take "academese" and convert it into understandable English. His chapter on leadership is one of the most original I have seen and the discussion of "resiliency" is fascinating. He also presents six detailed case studies and each is written essentially to stand alone. The first three chapters lay out a conceptual blueprint and this makes each case easier to interpret. His use of compelling anecdotes and well-researched historical passages really bring the cases to life. Highly recommended.

Solid Presentation of the Leadership Process
Even though this is essentially a research book it is very well
written and contains a solid presentation of the leadership process. The chapter summarizing leadership research is the best I've seen and provides an original framework around which to read the case studies. There has been a lot of academic research on leadership over the last twenty years and much of it is incomprehensible and so specific as to be relatively useless but the author's original synthesis of this work
is excellent. The cases studies are not only very entertaining but they follow this basic leadership framework developed in the theory chapter. The chapter on the University as a complex organization is also very good and highly readable.I recommend the book both as an essay on leadership and as an analysis of university presidency.
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Reviews (2)

Incredible Memoir of the Gulag!!!
This book shocked, sickened, and inspired me. I never realized how terrible Stalin's purges were until I read Ginzburg's historically accurate and emotionally compelling memoir. Unforgettable characters, disturbing mental images, and harrowing brutality made up the Soviet Gulag and Ginzburg's book showcases them beautifully! Outstanding memoir!!

One of the most harrowing descriptions of the Stalin purges
Eugenia Ginsburg was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in 1937 on a false charge of terrorism at the height of the Stalin purges. In her first book 'Into the whirlwind' she describes her arrest, her interrogation, her mockery of a trial and two years in solitary confinement in prison. She was then transported to Magadan in the far East of Russia to a labour camp, and the first volume ends as she is beginning to cope with the undescribably harsh conditions in the camp.

'Within the whirlwind' describes the next fifteen years until her return and rehabilitation. She describes how her life was saved by gaining work as a nurse in the camp hospital where she met her second husband.

This book leaves the reader astonished how Evgenia could describe her life with such humour and at the same time with such human understanding. All the time, however, the reader is reminded of the inhumanity, lying and deception of the Stalin regime.

At one stage, the vice president of the USA, Henry Wallace, visits the camps, and the prisoners are removed and the guards temporarily take their place and manage to convince the gullible American that the camps are manned by well fed and enthusiastic pioneers.

Eugenia returns to Moscow, her life destroyed, having lost one of her sons. She ends on a note of optimism, that the truth will be told in her native land. She died however in 1977 and never saw her books published in her native land nor the destruction of the communist regime.

This book is now out of print, which is a pity. Everybody interested in Russia should try to get hold of a copy and read it and ponder on the demons that helped produce the country as it is today. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Readers will laugh, cry and rage as Elizabeth Feinman, passionate about her job, her students and the issues of the day, tumbles from grace the more deeply involved she gets in trying to improve all three.

Set in a junior-senior high school in the nineties, this story reveals what passes for standards and discipline and how a school administration, eager for national attention, can cook the books, shut down criticism, avoid critical evaluation and rid itself of whomever it cares to. The narrative, which spans four decades, touches on raising the mantel for women, introducing sports to girls and adapting to societal changes. It then follows a school district's efforts to rid itself of a thorn in its side.

As Ms. Feinman stands up to career ending challenges, readers will no longer believe that teaching is easy; teachers don't care; top-down management improves what goes on in classrooms; tenure protects teachers; and that a strong professional association is unnecessary if teachers are good at what they do. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

GOOD-BYE CAMELOT
I attended 2 of these "fictional" schools during the Camelot years of education on Long Island. Isobel Kleinman was my Phys. Ed. teacher. YOU WILL BE RIVETED by her story...I could not put the book down!

The sacrificing of excellent teachers to maintain bogus grading, attendance, & behavioral statistics for financial gain, awards recognition, better budgets, & increased property values is a pathetic state of affairs for education. The district fear factor, outrageous ratio of non-tenured teachers, & growing number of retired good teachers will create the perfect environment for this corrupt district to reign. The fabrications & perjury of the students, faculty, & administration is astonishing!
- June Cwiek Jordan

GREAT READ
"To Dangerous To Teach" is too good to miss. This incredible story is so well told that it aroused anger, incredulity, disgust,empathy and pushed all my buttons. If you have an interest in how schools are run, students are being taught, teachers are asked to assume burdens beyond the classroom, this story will capture you. Elizabeth Feinman's struggle to be a great teacher while protecting her professional status makes a great read.

Reads Like a Spy Thriller
This true story reads like a first class spy thriller. It is so surreal that Stephen King could not do a better job. The average person would not think things like this could possibly happen in a field that is supposed to be dedicated to educating our students. Instead, we find that solid professionalism takes a back seat to powerful individuals political agenda. I am a teacher and have seen some pretty strange things happen, but never on this scale. Read it and see what I mean.

Thrilling
Your (hi)story remains so fascinating that I only reluctantly interrupt
reading it to look up words in the dictionary. It took a while since it is
not written in my native tongue but (it) is fascinating and (a book) one can
hardly stop reading. You certainly are a gifted writer. The more I read the
more I felt uneasy, annoyed (and)even disgusted by the behavior of some
people you describe. If it were a story that (was) made up from a to z,
OK, but when . . . everything really happened - well then it is almost a
miracle that you are still the sound mind and pleasant, interesting, engaged
and lively, well-balanced person friends love and appreciate.
Congratulations Erwin Kaufmann

This book will get you to think
Elizabeth....worked in a Kafka-esque world where evil ruled....(That)she survived with her principles in tact is....a triumph. Every chapter will shock you!

Dr. Richard Saland ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (42)

Gambling and Loss???
"We're better situated than most people. We've got good jobs. We had some extra money. It was disposable income in some sort of almost cartoonish sense, and we disposed of it. Most people, I suspect, don't have that luxury. A lot of people, even if they lose a little money, probably could have put that money to use in their lives in a way their lives needed." -Frederick Barthelme

This is no tragedy or eye-opening story on the evils of gambling. If you want those meet me in Vegas! haha...

These guys are just plain BAD gamblers. They claim to have read all the books on Blackjack and understand how to count cards to gain a small advantage over the house yet they find playing that way to be boring. They call themselves "above average" players but tell us they often take insurance bets. Even partial knowledge of basic strategy would keep an "above average" player from making this bet. They have no concept of money management and often spent hours chasing their losses with larger bets just trying to get back to even. And SLOTS??? jeezus! Knowing slots are a poor gaming choice these brothers still sunk thousands of dollars into them often hitting jackpots only to lose it all back by stepping up to the next denomination of machine. One brother won 130,000 in slot jackpots in one year and still lost several thousand on slots for the year.

Their tales of gambling are pretty boring and can be witnessed every day by visiting a casino near you. Their addiction is that they like to have a good time and have the money to do it.

The charges brought against them were pretty silly. The casino has tapes showing a dealer possibly giving signals on when to take insurance or not to. There were 50 something hands over 2 nights in question and we didn't get a detailed break down on the hands but when the casino finally pulled them off the table they were down several thousand dollars. So they are not only bad gamblers but possibly bad cheaters as well. I don't think there was probably any real threat of conviction. It did not scare them enough to stop gambling, they simply moved to another casino. They still gamble today. Awhile back an interviewer wanted to see them in action and he certainly did. 17,000 dollars lost over a few hours.

Anyway, it is a quick read. Pretty unremarkable story. I read it on the plane to pass time. The money spent on this book would be better spent at your local casino. Hang out by the cash machine. Wait for some sad sack to pull out his last 20.00... buy him a drink and listen to his story!

Not a how-to book
When some athlete demands that his contract be renegotiated and you hear the phrase, "It's not about the money," that's when you know that it most certainly IS about the money. But for the Barthelmes the trouble they find really isn't abou the money. Even though they lost $250,000 gambling in Mississippi casinos, that isn't the loss that moved them. The money they lost wasn't theirs, really, it was inherited from their recently-deceased parents, and much of the book is a memoir of the life they had with their parents, and of how their lives lost direction after their parents passed away.

But I enjoyed the parts revealing their gambling lives best. The brothers were able to live quite normal lives, teaching and writing as well as they ever had while at the same time spending hours at the boats playing games they knew deep down they had no chance to win. Their description of their casino experience is fascinating, often morbidly so. They write of hands that fell their way and slots that yielded big jackpots, but it's difficult to feel any pleasure in it, because you know that the winnings will be returned to the casino in short order.

What this book ISN'T is a book on how not to gamble. The authors realize early on that the casinos exist to take your money. They read scores of books on how to beat the odds and how to count cards and find them all pointless. They like the risk-- counting cards is too much like work, it takes all the fun out of playing. And they understand that over time there is no way you can expect to beat a casino in fair play, no way, no matter how sharp or lucky you are. The merciless laws or probabilty will grind you up. But the most telling line in the whole book sums up the whole problem with gambling addicts, that, "...losing never felt like the worst part. Quitting did."

At the end of the book the brothers were arrested on ridiculous felony gambling charges, and while the dust jacket states that the charges were later dropped, the book itself ends with the charges still standing, so you don't know what happened to them afterwards or why the charges were dropped, which was disappointing.

But the book does show the dark side of big-time gambling (or gaming, gambling's new cute-and-cuddly name) and it provides some sort of counterargument to those who think that gambling can cure a region's economic woes. The games pump some money in, but whose money, and at what social cost is it earned?

Of Nepotism and Naivete
First, the obvious: neither Barthelme brother would have cushy college-teaching jobs had not their eldest brother, Donald, been a trendy post-modernist icon. The younger brother, Steven B., has managed to publish exactly one (1) book of short stories; Rick, the larger, plumper one, has some sort of gossamer reputation among those who like trailer-park fiction. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of better writers with better qualifications who would kill and maim with gleeful abandon for jobs at Southern Mississippi -- and who would devote themselves to those jobs, and to their students, rather than run off two or three times a week to squander Daddy's money at the blackjack tables [disclaimer: the undersigned thinks she is one of those "better writers"]. That said, this slender volume does indeed fascinate: I read it straight through in five hours, and so will most readers of a literary bent. The brothers B. have in fact done me a service, one years of shrink visits and antidepressants have failed to do -- in one stroke, they have made me glad, glad, glad that I abandoned the academy, failed to obtain a Ph.D., and find myself teaching high school English thirty years after my Iowa fiction MFA. Theirs is a cautionary tale, of what may happen to smart people with minimal reality contact and few, if any, day-to-day responsibilities. The cavernous lack of common-sense knowledge they display in their forays to the Gulf Coast casinos would be inconceivable to anyone who's punched a clock or handled an insurance claim. They are actually surprised to find that casinos have a corporate identity! Gee, they thought those people were their friends ... gahh! As for the dead father they apparently despised, I felt sorry for D. Barthelme Sr. His hard work, his habits of deep thinking and attention to detail, become monstrosities in the ham-hands of his two youngest sons, who in fifty-plus years on this planet have not managed to obtain perspective one. The book is good -- the descriptions of gambling's intoxications, the minute processing of each foolish and silly and self-deluding thought as it arises, are executed with consummate skill -- and yet one can't help concluding, as the memoir shrinks down upon itself into a puddle of anticlimax, that six months or so in prison would have been good for these men, taught them a painful life-lesson or two. Crucial to an understanding of the brothers' plight is the fact that neither Barthelme bothered to have children, thus giving themselves the right to be babies forever. They are not so much perpetual adolescents as they are pre-pubescent (wife and girlfriend notwithstanding), mired forever in Fiftiesland where, if you want to be a cowboy, you just put on the hat and yell, "Bang-bang!" They are not intellectual -- or accomplished -- enough for the ivory-tower defense they so quickly assume; what they are, are second- and third-tier journeymen blessed with a famous name and a glib ability to sling the relativist Crisco. While one may end up wishing Barthelme Sr., who unlike his sons appeared to be able to distinguish right from wrong, had willed his inheritance somewhere else, this reviewer is grateful for the folly of his heirs. A job at Southern Mississippi may be gravy, but that thin gruel isn't nourishing. Real life is the real meat.

A story of loss
Double Down is a terrific book about loss. Frederick and Steve Barthelme are brothers who moved to Mississippi to become college professors. They come from a very close knit family, and when it is unwoven from the death of their Mother and Father, a gambling addiction is triggered. Steve and Frederick become regulars at The Grand, a local casino, and they start going at least once a week and spending the whole night there all the way into early morning. After blowing all of their inheritance from their parents, they are acussed of cheating. They were indicted and charged with a felony, and forever kicked out of their favorite casino. This didn't stop their gambling addiction, however it did slow it down. They make fewer trips, to another casino and are less intense gamblers.

The book was well written and for the most part it kept my attention. Some parts they seemed to ramble off about their parents and family, and it gets slow. The accounts of their gambling binges keep you wanting more. They know they should stop, but keep throwing their money in anyway. I recommend this to everyone who is intrested in gambling.

Double Down
Double Down, a book about two brothers who discover the world of gambling, has the suspense and drama needed for a good gambling story. The two brothers, who happen to be respectable college professors, move down South to Mississippi to be around their parents. The family, which has drifted apart through the years, has come together for their parent's final years. Soon after their dad die's, the inheritance money starts burning a hole in the brother's pockets. Riverboat gambling puts out the fire. The wild ride lasts for two years, until the Casino accuses them of cheating. Through it all, the brother's learn about themselves, family, and why people do the things they do. ... Read more

Book Description

David Pierpont Gardner was president of one of the world's most distinguished centers of higher learning-the nine-campus University of California-from 1983 to 1992. In this remarkably candid and lively memoir he provides an insider's account of what it was like for a very private, reflective man to live an extremely public life as leader of one of the most complex and controversial institutions in the country. Earning My Degree is a portrait of uncommon leadership and courage and a chronicle of how these traits shaped a treasured, and sometimes mystifying, American institution.Before his tenure as president, Gardner spent seven years at the University of California, Santa Barbara, during a tumultuous era of culture wars, ethnic division, and anti-Vietnam War protests, leaving his post as vice chancellor to serve as vice president of the University of California from 1971 to 1973. In 1973 he was named president of the University of Utah, and while there he chaired the National Commission on Excellence in Education. As president of the University of California, he contended with intense controversies over affirmative action, animal rights, AIDS research, weapons labs, divestment in South Africa, and much more. This memoir recounts his experiences with these and other issues and describes his dealings with the diverse cast of characters who influence the university: U.S. presidents, governors, legislators, regents, chancellors, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and donors. The epilogue of Earning My Degree is a thoughtful and engaging account of the ten years since Gardner's retirement that includes his personal views about what has truly mattered in his life.Illustrations: 55 b/w photographs ... Read more

Amazon.com

Some people are born teachers, some become great through experience, and some become famous through their students. The renowned violin teacher Dorothy DeLay fits all three categories. She discovered her innate talent and love for teaching early in life, inspired by the great pedagogue Ivan Galamian, but her long association with him, first as his student, then as his assistant at the Juilliard School, ended in an acrimonious parting of ways. She then developed her own class of students at Juilliard and other prestigious conservatories, and soon acquired a worldwide reputation as unrivalled producer of prodigies and virtuosos. One of her first star pupils was Itzhak Perlman; it might be said that they made each other famous. The music world has long speculated about what sets DeLay and her teaching apart, and in this book, 10 years in the making, Barbara Sand tries to find some answers. She observed DeLay in action and interaction with her pupils at Juilliard, the Aspen summer school, and at home, and talked extensively with DeLay and her husband of almost 60 years, Edward Newhouse. Sand interviewed her assistants, her students past and present, and the conductors and managers who engage them. What emerges is a portrait of a woman whose inexhaustible energy, determination, inquiring intellect, and single-minded commitment to her work and her students give her a larger-than-life quality. This is a personal profile, not a description of a teaching method. Indeed, DeLay claims she has none, though it seems clear that she is guided by Galamian's technical principles. However, she rejects his well-known authoritarianism, responding to her pupils' individual needs and tempering stringent demands with generous encouragement and support. What makes her approach unique is her deep involvement in her students' lives, from choosing their wardrobes to remaining available to them as adviser and confidante long after they leave her studio. Even more remarkable is her ability to launch them into the concert world. Their gratitude and devotion are unstintingly expressed by Sand's carefully selected interviewees, as is her own wholehearted admiration. The book is a hymn of praise.

However, like all successful people, DeLay has her share of detractors. Sand dispatches them in a single chapter, mostly devoted to refuting criticism, some of which is undoubtedly inspired by envy. It is said that her students win major prizes and make successful careers because she attracts the best talents from all over the world, and because she has attained an unprecedented position of power and influence in the music profession's slippery back corridors. She takes only highly accomplished, motivated students who are preparing for solo careers and practice all day. Even the youngest children arrive playing virtuoso concertos, which indicates heavy family pressure and means that she can hand out the carrots while the parents wield the stick. Nevertheless, the chapter on prodigies makes the tortuous process of training and "handling" them sound utterly benign and healthy.

Sand discusses DeLay's well-known habit of keeping students waiting for hours and leaving much of the teaching to her assistants (whom she gets on the Juilliard faculty), explaining that she accepts too many students and spends too much time promoting them. But she mentions legitimate pedagogical issues only by implication. Unlike teachers who also perform, DeLay never plays for her students (beyond some technical demonstration) to avoid exposing them to a single influence; instead, she advises them to listen to different interpretations on many recordings. But doesn't this also produce imitation, and perhaps confusion as well? Entirely performance-oriented, DeLay focuses on what is effective onstage and encourages a large-scaled, extroverted playing style. She speaks emphatically about teaching her students to think for themselves, but never mentions fostering their emotional response to the music or helping them in the slow, inward process of discovering their own feelings. Yet isn't this the key to becoming a communicative artist?

Sand is an empathetic, adept interviewer, winning her subjects' confidence and eliciting frank, informative responses (though some could have used editing). Galamian, perhaps to contrast his teaching style with DeLay's, generally comes off rather badly; DeLay herself speaks about their rupture candidly but without rancor. The book contains much absorbing information, punctuated with many detailed descriptions of people's looks and attire. There are sweeping statements about players and teachers. Why, for example, are such great artist-teachers as Flesch, Busch, Enescu, Rostal, and Bron not mentioned among the 20th-century "teaching geniuses"? Sand's style is a pleasure to read, engaging, lively, humorous, and to the point, despite some moments of confusion and contradiction. Her perceptive insights and warm feeling for her subject bring us closer to understanding what makes Dorothy DeLay such a fascinating, controversial personality. --Edith Eisler ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Interesting, but pulls too many punches
Barbara Lourie Sand's book about Dorothy DeLay is written by a polished journalist who knows how to tell a good story. The early part of the book is thus the most interesting, tracing DeLay's life and development, first as a moderately successful concert violinist and chamber musician, next as longtime assistant to the great pedagogue Ivan Galamian, and finally as legendary teacher and mentor of many of the most successful classical violinists of the 20th century.

Sand mentions in a preface that she shaped this book during the course of a ten-year association with DeLay during which she was also writing articles about some of her well-known students. She obviously had a warm and close relationship with DeLay, her husband Edward Newhouse, and her students, and while this gave her an enviable access it probably hurt her journalistic acumen in the end. Too often, troubling questions are raised and treated dismissively, or quickly dropped--the hardships of raising and nurturing exceptionally gifted children, or outright abuse in the name of discipline and training, for example. Sand treats DeLay's rupture with Galamian in a fair amount of detail, but does not mention that some of DeLay's students have broken very publicly with her as well. Criticisms of DeLay and her style are mostly confined to one chapter and are largely made by unnamed sources. Though DeLay's approach to teaching is discussed in detail, important issues, such as the pros and cons of learning from a teacher who herself never demonstrates, are left untouched.

In short, this book is a good read and intriguing glimpse into the arcane and competitive world of top classical music-making. Because of her unwillingness to "go for the jugular," as she admits at one point, Barbara Lourie Sand loses a chance to make it even more.

Minor quibble: The Accolay Concerto is _not_ part of the Suzuki violin literature.

I Loved This Book!
Music is my avocation, but I teach on the high school level. Not only did this book fill me in on the inner workings of the clasical music business (lots of juicy stories that made me feel "in the know"), but I feel inspired by Dorothy Delay's masterful teaching style. I feel I'm a better teacher myself now when I enter the classroom and approach my students' difficulties and strengths. The book is so clearly written and I kept wondering how the author, Barbara Lourie Sand, got all this information. She must have spent a great deal of time with her fascinating subject because Ms. Delay came alive, her gifted students came alive, and so did all the mavens and greats in the music world. I'm telling all my colleagues and friends about the book. I'm urging them to give it a read because it is a treasure.

Amazing
Being a violinist, I found it utterly foolish to not read a book about one of the best teachers of the instrument in the 20th Century. The first day I purchased it I read almost 200 pages, literally unable to put it down.
The relationships Ms. Delay had with her students were not only educational ones, but personal friendships. How unreal that despite the graduation of many students, they still went back to her for lessons after landing their professional solo careers! Many times a violinist is too hard-headed and full of himself to get advice from another person, but such is not the case with the students of Ms. Delay.
I felt, as I read the book, that I could not only relate to some of the technical issues the students had, but that I was actually receiving a private lesson from Delay without ever touching my violin.
I definitely intend on reading this book again, and again, and again, with highlighter in hand. I have a completely different outlook on how I not only listen to the phrasing of music but in creating my own phrasing as well.
The world has lost a teacher, but more importantly a wonderful woman, which many could call a friend and mother-figure.
This was a fabulous book and I recommend it to every musician, no matter what instrument you play.

Teaching Geniuses and All the Others, Too
Through Mrs. Sand's warm, informed voice the reader can enter the veiled world of Julliard: its politics, its students, and its famous teachers. Her subject is Dorothy Delay, a woman, we learn, who from the '40s and 50's on had the brillant talent and requisite nerve to break through the traditional male world of classical, dictatorial music teaching, and assert her own humanistic beliefs and style. This is a book also for people, musical and otherwise, who want to learn how to overcome professional barriers. It is inspiring.

Some may think that Delay's skill in building successful young careers lies in having the ear to choose the most talented applicants to her studio. However, this book is true to its title: anyone can find clues here for becoming a great teacher.

Sand's miraculous feat was to extract both subtle and bold methods of teaching from years of observing Mrs. Delay. Anyone who teaches another, no matter what the subject, no matter what the level, will learn from this book. It is emotionally rich and informative.

A Disappointment
I had hoped to enjoy this book on Dorothy DeLay, but found it instead a disappointment. The adulatory tone, the fulsome praise of DeLay, are gratuitous and alienating. One feels the author was intimidated by her subject and by DeLay's formidable husband, who took offense (as she recounts) at any hint of an independent comment or question. So the author dared write nothing but the most effusive praise. The price of access was apparently the author's journalistic integrity. What is the purpose of this book? Does it serve the reader -- or the subject? Another reviewer calls this "hagiography", and the word is unfortunately apt. ... Read more

Book Description

In this, the first biography of Abraham Flexner (1866–1959), distinguished scholar Thomas N. Bonner offers an engaging and insightful view of one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century American education. From his early, pathbreaking work in experimental primary schools to the founding of the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Abraham Flexner's influence on American education was deep, pervasive, and enduring.In Thomas N. Bonner, Flexner has at long last found the biographer that his critical role in American education deserves.

The son of poor Jewish immigrants in Louisville, Kentucky, Flexner was raised in the Reconstruction South and educated at the Johns Hopkins University in the first decade of that institution's existence. Upon earning his degree in 1886, he returned to Louisville to found--four years before John Dewey's Chicago "laboratory school"--an experimental school based on progressive ideas that soon won the close attention of Harvard President Charles Eliot. After a successful nineteen-year career as a teacher and principal, he turned his attention to medical education. His 1910 survey--known today as the Flexner Report--stimulated much-needed, radical changes in the field and, with its emphasis on full-time clinical teaching,