Hot Dogs and Hamburgers

Shindler, Rob. Hot Dogs & Hamburgers: Unlocking Life's Potential by Inspiring Literacy at Any Age. River Grove Books, 2012.

Rob Shindler recounts his adventures in becoming a tutor for adults learning to read - a process he started when he wanted to help his son learn to read. His story turns literacy statistics into real people and shows the importance of literacy education. A fun, easy, entertaining read. I truly enjoyed this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley for the purposes of review.

Your Teacher Said What?!

Kernen, Joe. Your Teacher Said What?! Defending our Kids from the Liberal Assault on Capitalism. New York: Penguin Group, 2011.

I thought this book would be a description of things that have sneaked into the curriculum of our educational system, or bizarre things that teachers are telling students these days, all along the theme of capitalism, progressivism, and our nation's economy.

Instead, this book was a discussion of capitalism, progressivism, and our nation's economy, but with little mention of school, curriculum, teachers, etc.  The book itself is fairly interesting, although its bias is quite obvious, but I was disappointed by the misleading title.

Why Boys Fail

Whitmire, Richard. Why Boys Fail: Saving Them from an Educational System that's Leaving Them Behind. New York: AMACOM, 2010.

School has become more complicated than it used to be.  High-stakes testing and the No Child Left Behind Act have led schools to introduce more tests and more class time spent preparing for tests.  In order to get kids ready for all these tests, kindergarten has become K4, then K3, and in some places there are even K2 programs.  And they seem to be necessary; how else will a child be ready to read in first grade?

And yet with all this testing and accountability, with the plethora of programs, we still see kids failing.  And the majority of them are boys. Whitmire posits that this is due to an increasingly verbal classroom.  Even math class, historically a haven for boys, has focused more on word problems and less on calculations.  Add to this the plethora of young adult novels with female protagonists or softer themes and you have a recipe for failure.  Many, many boys are failing, regardless of race, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Whitmire suggests that we look again at the way we run our classrooms and that we make the necessary changes so that boys can learn in the way they learn best.  Boys need the critical literacy and writing skills that they are missing when they "tune out" a lesson that seems boring to them.  And it's our job to ensure that they receive these skills. 

I found this book to be a fascinating read.  Many of the things I did in my classroom echoed what Whitmire suggested, but he had more suggestions that I would have wanted to try.  Because he's right.  By fifth grade, many boys are turned off to reading and to school and would rather be outside with a soccer ball or at home with a game controller.  If you are an educator or a parent, this book is a must-read.

Weapons of Mass Instruction

Gatto, John Taylor. Weapons of Mass Instruction. Canada: New Society Publishers, 2009.

I used to be an English teacher.  Actually, I used to be a fairly decent teacher; my students usually enjoyed my class, and it seemed to me that they were learning a lot.  I had good feedback on my observations from the administration and good test results from my students; I felt pretty successful.  However, there was always a nagging thought at the back of my mind:

When are these students going to use this information in real life?

I completely understand the real-life applications of strong writing skills or reading comprehension skills, but what about the more technical aspects of grammar?  If you are in a profession other than education or linguistics, has anyone ever, ever asked you to underline all the adjectives in a sentence?  Has your supervisor stopped by your desk and requested that you recite the characteristics of American Romanticism? Somehow I doubt it. 

Gatto, himself a former English teacher, questions not only the material covered in schools, but the methodology of schooling itself.  He posits that children who have been in school for 12+ years have not been educated, but rather trained into passivity and consumerism.  And I think he has a point. 

This book is fascinating, thought-provoking, and a bit discouraging.  I am so glad I was not reading this book while I was in a classroom, although it doubtless would have changed the methods I used.  I do agree with Gatto that school as we know it is not working.  The countless programs and dollars and methods and books thrown at schools every year - with little to no change in results - is evidence of that. There isn't a quick or easy answer to this problem, but it definitely is a problem that warrants addressing.

If you are an educator, a parent, or a student, I strongly recommend you pick up this book.  It is well worth your time.