Teaching the New Basic Skills

This is an excellent and realistic book, with no quick fix solutions. It shows that schools need to teach not only basic math and reading, but also the ability to work in groups and to communicate effectively, as well as to solve problems. High school graduates need these skills to get good jobs. Simple solutions such as charter schools, choice, and more tests will not suffice. Hard work and perseverence at the local school level is needed.

This book is about what it takes to get a good job in manufacturing (Honda, for example) or services (insurance) and how the schools are failing to provide students with the "new basic skills" which will enable them to get these jobs. The analysis of what's wrong is similar to other analyses, and it is accurate: the average high school graduate doesn't know very much and doesn't really care that he doesn't know much. My quarrel with this book is that the authors underestimate the difficulty of changing the situation. Improving operations at Honda in Marysville, Ohio, is NOT the same thing as trying to produce high quality students. Schools have become social service agencies, and learning enough to get a good job at Honda is only one of many purposes the schools serve, and on any given day it may not be the most important