Education

For a book less than two hundred pages long, this took me a long time to finish (and not only because I mislaid it for two weeks). The subject is interesting and relevant, and each viewpoint is short enough to finish easily in one sitting. But as with the previous book that I read in this Opposing Viewpoints series (on Islam), I felt that the viewpoints were addressing various aspects of the issue without answering the points made by other writers. Partly that is a result of these books being compiled from previously written materials, rather than essays written for the purpose of the book. The best books I have read that present opposing viewpoints allow each author to directly address the points made by other authors in the same volume - and better yet, to respond to their responses. One article did directly criticize the views expressed in the previous one, which had been written by then-President Clinton and was no doubt widely distributted. But its objection was that too many people would jump on what Clinton said to do without noting that he said one had to go about it the right way. That probably applies to just about everything written on the subject of education, and accounts for a great many of the problems in the system at all levels. It is folly to take any one recommendation about education and try to apply it across the board, without consideration for how it will work out in a specific situation, and often without heeding the cautions that accompanied the initial recommendation. The best piece in the book, I think, is one that emphasizes the need for each local community to have authority for and take responsibility for implementing educational programs that meet their needs and their goals. That author also stressed that it is a long, difficult process, with no quick or easy fixes. There are some places where bilingual education is done well (as one essay points out). One of them happens to be in a community near ours, where elementary students (whose parents choose to have them participate in this program) learn to be fully bilingual, regardless of whether their first language is English or Spanish. Other bilingual programs have been found to be dismal failures (as another essay emphasizes in arguing against the concept). It is a mistake to say that bilingual education is best based on the success in West Liberty. But it is even more mistaken to say that the whole idea is flawed because of the places where it has been done so badly. There are schools that shy away from rote memorization because they want students to learn to think rather than just regurgitate facts. There are schools that react to that by making rote memorization a focus of their programs. But good teachers have always known that it is a necessary part, but only a part, of the learning process. There are any number of good ideas that people latch onto as the answer to problems in our schools, but none of the ideas are capable, in themselves, of fixing what is

I used this book on my college research paper for Government, and it practically wrote the paper for me! A little dry in parts, but excellent for anyone who needs info for a high-school or college class, or who just so happens to be interested in education in the school system. Gives equal justification to both sides of arguments in the book.

I used this title on my college research paper for a Government 1100 class, and the book practically wrote the paper for me! It is great how clearly it spells out the debates in each side of the issues, and has the debates written out by someone who actually cares about them instead of an impartial researcher. Great for high-school or college research papers.