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Title: Class Warfare: Besieged Schools, Bewildered Parents, Betrayed Kids and the Attack on Excellence by J. Martin Rochester ISBN: 1-59403-044-8 Publisher: Encounter Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (9 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Pompous and grating
Comment: Rochester has such a talent for grating tone that I hated to agree with him, even when he was being reasonable. Luckily, that case didn't come up all that often. Sometimes he had sound notions -- of course it's not reasonable to have a sixth grader do a math assignment that's an essay about his/her "favorite number." But he needlessly denigrates concepts like teaching for multiple talents and writing to different genres/audiences, arguing as though the abuse of these concepts invalidated them entirely. His attempts at joviality are also forced, often rude, and all too frequent. And despite his opening claims to liberalism, he makes claims like, "It was obvious that, in his rush to fairness, the principal had substituted racial quotas and other counting-by-the-numbers for merit." Leaving aside the question of what else one would count by, if not the numbers, the situation as he presents it is not at all *obviously* racially motivated, and the basic assumption that it *must* be hardly seems to fit any kind of liberal -- *or* the kind of logical rigor he champions for students. This book was more sensationalistic than useful.
Rating: 2
Summary: Sorry to Ruin the Party, But...
Comment: The author's analysis of the flaws of American's university system is news to most folks, and then some. Who would have thought that schools like Harvard would need a remedial writing center?
That, however, is the only good thing that came out of this book. The author twists the definition of "progressive," and makes progressives look like the reactionaries while poor, poor conservatives and traditionalists are the victims. He argued that the flaws in our nation's public school system stemmed from the actions of progressives, as if they never existed before progressives seemingly seized control. He provided figures indicating that education spending in the U.S. was higher than ever, without thinking why so many schools still hold their classes in broom closets or stairways. Is it the fault of progressives that military spending in this country has now outstripped educational spending? That the author doesn't attempt to answer.
The author said that he didn't abandon the progressive movement, but progressives abandoned him. That is doubtful. He should just admit that he was never that progressive in the first place - yearning for a time when a quality education was only available for a select minority, even in the public schools.
A final proof that the author was never progressive was his attack on the teaching of American History in schools today. Apparently, he despises the fact that more than ever, multiculturalism is being used in the teaching of AH. So dead white men are becoming forgotten. Unfortunately for him, with the population of the U.S. becoming more black, brown, and yellow than white, the teaching of only white historical figures isn't going to cut it anymore.
Rating: 4
Summary: One man's struggle to improve schools
Comment: This book is the story of the author's attempt to get involved in and ultimately to help improve his children's schools. Rochester is not a professional K-12 educator; he's a bright guy who was deeply interested in his children's education, and the more he learned about their schooling, the more alarmed he became. This book is his story, broadened in scope as an indictment of the American K-12 education.
The key idea is that there has been increasing concern in K-12 education for the bottom-achieving students; this concern (which Rochester thinks is appropriate) has come at the expense of the middle- and top-achieving students (which he thinks is not). Rochester argues that our schools have become testing grounds for crackpot theories (e.g., new math) that lower standards for ALL students, part by emphasizing feeling over knowing. Because feeling is subjective, standards are low, and everyone gets A's and B's. The high grades make everyone feel good (which Rochester argues has also become paramount; everyone should have high self-esteem, even if it means building high self-esteem at moments that the children hasn't done anything worthy of esteem). The high grades placate the parents, and make the teacher, school, and district look good. Eventually, however, reality must reveal the charade, and it does so when our kids go to college, or when they are directly compared to children from other nations and it's revealed that they don't write or think very well.
A great strength of this book is the tone of the prose. Rochester is not an education professor, he's not a superintendent, a government bureaucrat, or a historian of education. He's a regular guy. Hence, the attitude of the author takes might be summarized by imagining him speaking to an administrator: "Look, I don't understand why these programs will work. They sound crazy to me. Can you please explain them?" Rochester is smart and persistent, and he's not cowed by authority. He admits ignorance when appropriate and takes blame when the blame is his. We would all like to think that we are like Rochester: no-nonsense, common-sense types who do our homework and are involved. Reading about his crusade is a pleasure.
Although the book is engagingly written, I didn't find that it had much of an argument, per se. It's more a listing of problems. And I found Rochester's proposed solution a little odd. In the last chapter he suggests a compromise. Creativity is emphasized at the expense of rigor, the worst students are cared for at the expense of the rest, feeling is emphasized at the expense of knowing; but, he writes, why must anything be sacrificed? Why not spend half the students' time on the current curriculum, and half on a traditional curriculum? It's an odd proposal, given that Rochester has just argued for 200 pages that the current curriculum is nonsense.
All in all, it's a worthwhile read, especially for parents who want to get involved in their child's school. I would give this book five stars, but I'm trying to reduce grade inflation, a measure of which I am sure Rochester would approve.
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Title: The Worm in the Apple : How the Teacher Unions Are Destroying American Education by Peter Brimelow ISBN: 0060096616 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn by DIANE RAVITCH ISBN: 0375414827 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning by Abigail Thernstrom, Stephan Thernstrom ISBN: 0743204468 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Dumbing Down Our Kids : Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, or Add by Charles J. Sykes ISBN: 0312148232 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 15 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Conspiracy of Ignorance: The Failure of American Public Schools by Martin L. Gross ISBN: 0060932600 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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