Book Description
Based on the belief that even small accommodations make a difference in the success of students with disabilities, this text provides readers with the knowledge, tools, and practical strategies that will empower them to spark learning in every student including students with disabilities, culturally diverse students, students with limited English proficiency, economically disadvantaged students, and other students at risk.
Revised to reflect recent changes in the law and current terminology, the strength of the book continues to be its numerous learning activities and sample lessons addressing both elementary and secondary classrooms, as well as its four chapter unit on curriculum adaptations with specific strategies and activities for teaching reading, writing, mathematics, and content areas. The strong emphasis on professional planning and collaboration make it an excellent resource for all teachers.
Designed for anyone interested in inclusion/mainstreaming, teaching students with disabilities in the regular classroom, and teaching exceptional learners.
Customer Reviews:
A good overall view.......2007-09-24
Even if you have used other ed psych books before, you will find this book to be quite good - it clearly states definitions in a way that you may not have understood before. An easy reading textbook!
Supportive Text for Teachers.......2006-02-28
I bought this book for a class in mainstreaming, required for my full credential in California. The book is well organized and easy to read. The information is valuable and I will refer to this book throughout my career as a teacher.
Product Description
Reclaiming Youth At Risk offers educators and others access to unique strategies for reaching troubled youth. This resource explores: · The roots of discouragement in today s youth, including destructive relationships, learned irresponsibility, and a loss of purpose. · How to create a Circle of Courage to give youth a sense of belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity. · How to mend a circle that has been broken. · How to reclaim youth who are troubled or lost.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful, but needs development.......2007-05-28
This book holds many nuggets of wisdom that are worth pondering and finding ways to implement. However, it is poorly organized and often stops short of drawing actual conclusions and suggesting practices. At times it feels more like it should be a daily calendar of child rearing tips rather than a cohesive argument with guidance for implementation. Contrary to its own assertions, the book heavily renounces current systems without proposing wide ranging alternatives. It is difficult to translate a holistic tribal approach in which an entire community is dedicated to the education of youth into our current day systems. Are we to see our classroom or community center as a microcosm in which to implement these theories? But we only have access to the children for a small percentage of their weekly hours. Are we to build a commune, escaping the current system entirely and rebuild from the ground up? The implications of this book need to be drawn out further to include new organizational structures and policy suggestions that would fit our modern, urbanized world.
I had my doubts..........2007-01-09
I just finished reading Reclaiming Youth at Risk. I had my doubts at first. It uses Native American child-raising philosophy in helping create redeeming environments for our youth today. It has caused me to have a much deeper respect for the native american people as well.
A quote from poet Edwin Markham:
He drew a circle to shut me out.
Heretic, rebel a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win.
We drew a circle that took him in.
I recommend this to parents, teachers, and leaders everywhere.
Rethinking Youth and Relationships.......2007-01-06
This is a great tool for people working with youth. It is a simply written book that avoids any of the modern jargon in this area; it also deals directly with the issues facing adults and youths and their involvement with each other. It attempts to redirect our way of thinking about troubled young people and works on showing a way to restore their relationships with themselves, each other, adults and the 'real' world. This book isn't bogged down in goobledygook and aims to show a way to create restorative relationship practices and includes much well worn wisdom.
PERFECT CONDITION.......2006-01-30
Thanks for an AWESOME BOOK! PERFECT CONDITION! Great Service. Fast Shipping! Thanks so much. Jessica
Promoting a reclaiming environment........2001-10-05
This book is wonderful in guiding teachers and administrators in developing an atmosphere that promotes the positive development of all children. After a large section devoted to describing the wrong-doings of Americans and the decay of our value system (at times a little extreme,) the latter part of the book gives great strategies for the development of positive classroom management and a "reclaiming environment." Worth a read.
Amazon.com
In the tradition of Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos, German scientist Gerd Gigerenzer offers his own take on numerical illiteracy. "In Western countries, most children learn to read and write, but even in adulthood, many people do not know how to think with numbers," he writes. "I focus on the most important form of innumeracy in everyday life, statistical innumeracy--that is, the inability to reason about uncertainties and risk." The author wisely uses concrete examples from the real world to make his points, and he shows the devastating impact of this problem. In one example, he describes a surgeon who advised many of his patients to accept prophylactic mastectomies in order to dodge breast cancer. In a two-year period, this doctor convinced 90 "high-risk" women without cancer to sacrifice their breasts "in a heroic exchange for the certainty of saving their lives and protecting their loved ones from suffering and loss." But Gigerenzer shows that the vast majority of these women (84 of them, to be exact) would not have developed breast cancer at all. If the doctor or his patients had a better understanding of probabilities, they might have chosen a different course. Fans of Innumeracy will enjoy Calculated Risks, as will anyone who appreciates a good puzzle over numbers. --John Miller
Book Description
At the beginning of the twentieth century, H. G. Wells predicted that statistical thinking would be as necessary for citizenship in a technological world as the ability to read and write. But in the twenty-first century, we are often overwhelmed by a baffling array of percentages and probabilities as we try to navigate in a world dominated by statistics.
Cognitive scientist Gerd Gigerenzer says that because we haven't learned statistical thinking, we don't understand risk and uncertainty. In order to assess risk -- everything from the risk of an automobile accident to the certainty or uncertainty of some common medical screening tests -- we need a basic understanding of statistics.
Astonishingly, doctors and lawyers don't understand risk any better than anyone else. Gigerenzer reports a study in which doctors were told the results of breast cancer screenings and then were asked to explain the risks of contracting breast cancer to a woman who received a positive result from a screening. The actual risk was small because the test gives many false positives. But nearly every physician in the study overstated the risk. Yet many people will have to make important health decisions based on such information and the interpretation of that information by their doctors.
Gigerenzer explains that a major obstacle to our understanding of numbers is that we live with an illusion of certainty. Many of us believe that HIV tests, DNA fingerprinting, and the growing number of genetic tests are absolutely certain. But even DNA evidence can produce spurious matches. We cling to our illusion of certainty because the medical industry, insurance companies, investment advisers, and election campaigns have become purveyors of certainty, marketing it like a commodity.
To avoid confusion, says Gigerenzer, we should rely on more understandable representations of risk, such as absolute risks. For example, it is said that a mammography screening reduces the risk of breast cancer by 25 percent. But in absolute risks, that means that out of every 1,000 women who do not participate in screening, 4 will die; while out of 1,000 women who do, 3 will die. A 25 percent risk reduction sounds much more significant than a benefit that 1 out of 1,000 women will reap.
This eye-opening book explains how we can overcome our ignorance of numbers and better understand the risks we may be taking with our money, our health, and our lives.
Customer Reviews:
Overwritten, yet not particularly clear.......2007-06-02
I am always looking for materials to use to help non-specialist students understand some of the basic statistical errors that pharmaceutical advertisers exploit (and that so many otherwise educated and informed medical personnel also seem to misunderstand).
It's surprisingly difficult: some are way too technical and eccentric (Hacking). Others are too cute and breezy ("How to Lie..") Some are marred by the author's own (ungrounded) evolutionary conjectures (Taleb, "Fooled By Randomness....") Some just aren't clear enough.
Gigerenzer's book falls in that 'not clear enough' category. It fails to be clear for several reasons. First, as another reviewer has observed, it is badly overwritten. The analytical points, such as they were, were presented VERY early on in the book. The book should have been a pamplet. But, really, it is worse than that: instead of deepening the points, or providing more of a conceptual roadmap,the author repeated them, and in some cases clouded them with dubious interpretations/speculations, etc.
Some things should have been more carefully explained (in English as well as numbers), notably the misuse of statistics in interpreting evidence, both in the courtroom and in the interpretation of 'DNA fingerprints.' Some things should have been omitted. The chapter about HIV counseling really did not add very much. On the contrary: I think it may have detracted. It is VERY difficult to perform and interpret the sort of study that the author's student chose to perform; the student's methodology study was SERIOUSLY flawed, as any social science researcher is uncomfortably well aware.
Another candidate for deletion is the author's discussion of domestic violence. The statistical point is well made (and familiar): you have to have the right contrast class, or nothing you infer has any validity re: alleged connections between battering and killing. But the author's more 'philosophical' observations and speculations about violence against women....well, here again, I cringed. This IS an area in which there has been much examination, analysis, and--yes--speculation. The author's conjectures were painfully naive. I am sure he did not mean to appear flippant or to be laying claim to consideration as a serious investigator of the problem of domestic abuse. Still.....
I gave the book two rather than three stars at least in part because, in the end, there were serious audience questions: for WHOM was the author really writing? I honestly don't know. Not for me (a non-mathematician who nevertheless understands a fair amount). Not for my students, who are bright but more statistically naive. Not for the general layperson: the discussions are too mathematicized yet underexplained.
A good editor could have done wonders...
The truth about, fingerprints, DNA, AIDS, legal drugs, and so much more........2005-12-29
The book "Calculated Risk: How to Know When Numbers Deceive You", by Gerd Gigerenzer, will increase your risk aptitude. The 4 1/2 star (Amazon.com) book does not discuss statistical innumeracy from the IT perspective, but discusses innumeracy mainly in contemporary medicine, the justice system, and life in general.
Gerd describes four aspects of innumeracy as follows:
01) Illusion of certainty:
For example: Fingerprint and DNA testing.
02) Ignorance of relevant risks:
For example: "It is more likely that a young American male
knows baseball statistics than that his chances of dying on
a motorcycle trip is about 15 times higher than his chances
of dying on a car trip of the same distance."
03) Miscommunication of risks:
For example: One can communicate the chances that a test
will actually detect a disease in various ways ... The most
frequent way is in the form of a conditional probability: If
a person has cancer, the probability the he/she will test
positive on a screening is 90 percent. Many physicians
confuse that statement with this one: If a person test
positive on a screening, the probability that he/she has
cancer is 90 percent.
04) Drawing incorrect inferences from statistics:
For example: "Consider a newspaper article in which it is
reported that men with high cholesterol have a 50 percent
higher risk of heart attack. The figure of 50 percent
sounds frighting, put what does it mean? It means that out
of 100 fifty-year-old men without high cholesterol,
about 4 are expected to have a heart attack within ten years,
whereas among men with high cholesterol this number is 6. The
increase from 4 to 6 is the relative risk increase, that is,
50 percent. However. if one instead compares the number of
men in the two groups who are not expected to have heart
attacks in the next 10 years, the same increase in risk is
from 96 to 94, that is, about 2 percent (absolute risk). Now
the benefit of reducing one's cholesterol level no longer
looks so great."
Far from being a dry book on risk, uncertainty, and statistics, Gerd Gigerenzer is entertaining, provocative, irreverent and a bit of a maverick
.
" ... 1 out of every 90 Americans will lose his or her life in a motor vehicle accident by the age of 75. Most of them die in passenger car accidents."
" ... the terrorist attack on September 11. 2001, cost the lives of some 3,000 people. The subsequent decision of millions to drive rather than fly may have cost the lives of many more."
"... DNA ... match probability of 1 in 16 for a brother ... "
This book provides "tools for overcoming innumeracy that are easy to learn, apply, and remember."
A couple of great ideas.......2004-08-06
This book illustrates two important concepts very well: Statistics confuse even intelligent people, and the meaning of "false negative" and "false positive" data, especially when reported as percentages, can be far from intuitive.
Why only three stars? Both of these ideas are thoroughly illustrated and then beaten to death by page 50 of this 300 page book. (You can get most of the information from reading one or two of the other reviews here on Amazon).
The remainder of the book uses various medical examples to make the point that a percentage of a percentage may sound more significant than it is (or less significant than it is). As Gigerenzer illustrates, doing the arithmetic to determine the actual numbers of each case represented will untangle most misunderstandings. After about a dozen of these, though, only a reader with an interest in the specific examples will remain engaged.
The writing is clear, the examples are all good, and the book does amply illustrate the quotation cited in Mark Twain's Autobiography: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
How to interpret test results better than your Doc!.......2004-06-03
This is a very clearly written book. It demonstrates many numerical errors the press, the public, and experts make in interpreting the accuracy of medical screening test (mammography, HIV test, etc...) and figuring out the probability of an accused person being guilty.
At the foundation of the above confusions lies the interpretation of Baye's rule. Taking one example on page 45 regarding breast cancer. Breast cancer affects 0.8% of women over 40. Mammography correctly interprets 90% of the positive tests (when women do have breast cancer) and 93% of the negative ones (when they don't have breast cancer). If you ask a doctor how accurate this test is if you get a positive test, the majority will tell you the test is 90% accurate or more. That is wrong. The author recommends using natural frequencies (instead of conditional probabilities) to accurately interpret Baye's rule. Thus, 8 out of every 1,000 women have breast cancer. Of these 8 women, 7 will have a positive mammogram (true positives). Of, the remaining 992 women who don't have breast cancer, 70 will have a positive mammogram (false positives). So, the accuracy of the test is 7/(7+70) = 10%. Wow, that is pretty different than the 90% that most doctors believe!
What to do? In the case of mammography, if you take a second test that turns positive, the accuracy would jump to 57% (not that much better than flipping a coin). It is only when taking a third test that also turns positive that you can be reasonably certain (93% accuracy) that you have breast cancer. So, what doctors should say is that a positive test really does not mean anything. And, it is only after the third consecutive positive test that you can be over 90% certain that you have breast cancer. Yet, most doctors convey this level of accuracy after the very first test!
What applies to breast cancer screening also applies to prostate cancer, HIV test, and other medical tests. In each case, the medical profession acts like the first positive test provides you with certainty that you have the disease or not. As a rule of thumb, you should get at least a second test and preferably a third one to increase its accuracy.
The author comes up with many other counterintuitive concepts. They are all associated with the fact that events are far more uncertain than the certainty that is conveyed to the public. For instance, DNA testing does not prove much. Ten people can share the same DNA pattern.
Another counterintuitive concepts is associated with risk reduction. Let's say you have a cancer that has a prevalence of 0.5% in the population (5 in 1,000). The press will invariably make promising headline that a given treatment reduces mortality by 20%. But, what does this really mean? It means that mortality will be reduced by 1 death (from 5 down to 4). The author states that the relative risk has decreased by 20%; but, the absolute risk has decreased by only 1 in 1,000. He feels strongly that both risks should be conveyed to the public.
The author shows how health agencies and researchers express benefits of treatments by mentioning reduction in relative risk. This leads the public to grossly overstate the benefits of such treatment. The author further indicates how various health authorities use either relative risk or absolute risk to either maximize or minimize the public's interpretation of a health risk. But, they rarely convey both; which is the only honest way to convey the data.
If you are interested in this subject, I strongly recommend: "The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making" by Scott Plous. This is a fascinating book analyzing how we are less Cartesian than we think. A slew of human bias flaws our own judgment. Many of these deal with other application of Baye's rule.
Calculated Risks by Gigerenzer.......2003-10-28
The author presents some important observations about calculated
risks, probabilities and statistical test inferences. He makes
clear the necessity to understand risks clearly at the outset
of any important decision. For instance, a physician must take
into consideration "false positive " test results so that
he/she does not over-react. An over-reaction could cause the
physician to take unnecessary precautions that could do more
to endanger the patient than help. In addition, the author
cautions against fabrication of certainty or the use of
statistics to prove a predetermined result. This book is
useful in arriving at a realistic design for a statistical
test or any other test from which an important scientific
inference will be made.
Average customer rating:
- Good introduction to at-risk youth
|
At Risk Youth: A Comprehensive Response for Counselors, Teachers, Psychologists, and Human Services Professionals
J. Jeffries McWhirter ,
Benedict T. McWhirter ,
Ellen Hawley McWhirter , and
Robert J. McWhirter
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0534272363 |
Book Description
Prepare for work with at-risk youth with AT RISK YOUTH: A COMPREHENSIVE RESPONSE! Presenting educational, psychological, and counseling interventions for the prevention and treatment of at-risk behaviors, this counseling text will help you improve the lives of young people at risk. Each chapter makes use of case studies and stories of real clients to illustrate concepts and to highlight, apply, and personalize the book's information. An extensive appendix contains a list of phone numbers and Web page information on national organizations, agencies, and clearinghouses that provide information, technical assistance, and other resources on the problems of working with at-risk children, adolescents, and families.
Customer Reviews:
Good introduction to at-risk youth.......2000-03-30
The McWhirter's book provides a nice introduction to workingwith at-risk youth. This book is undoubtedly marked towardsundergraduate students and as a result the authors do a few things that are a bt too "cute" for my taste--like using their poetry and sayings at the beginning each chapter and using a tree metaphor to talk about at-risk behavior. Also, I did not find the case studies particularly relevant but are probably fine for students with limited experience workings with this population. None of this though detracts from an otherwise wonderful book. The authors do a nice job of addressing topics like risky sexual behavior, violence, and suicide and a good series of chapters on intervention. Having said this, though, I think this is a very nice book, enjoyed reading it, and will recommend it to others who want a overview of at-risk youth. END
Book Description
Taking professionals and students step by step through conceptualizing, planning, and implementing an effective early literacy program, this book focuses on preventing reading difficulties and promoting success in at-risk 3- to 5-year-olds. The authors draw on extensive research and many years of influential work in real classrooms. A comprehensive framework is delineated for helping young children construct meaning from different kinds of texts, develop key oral language skills, and learn concepts about print and the alphabet. Ideas for tailoring instruction to the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners are accompanied by clear assessment guidelines. The book also offers practical, how-to-do-it suggestions for setting up literacy activities and arranging the classroom environment. Concluding chapters bring the authors' approach to life with vivid depictions of a preschool and a kindergarten classroom in action. Two invaluable appendices provide additional useful resources: reproducible sheets for conducting literacy assessments and a primer on phonics for teachers.
Customer Reviews:
Very good........2007-06-26
I thought this book provided a lot of useful information for someone who is beginning work in this field. I do feel like a great deal of it is targeted more towards preschool than kindergarten, but definitely addresses the needs of "at-risk" students. The assessment suggestions were weak in my opinion, but a good starting point.
Book Description
A powerful look at the risks inherent in the trend toward making higher education a market rather than a regulated public sector, The Future of Higher Education reveals the findings of an extensive four-year investigation into the major forces that are transforming our American system of higher education. The book explores the challenges of intensified competition among institutions, globalization of colleges and universities, the expansion of the new for-profit and virtual institutions, and the influence of technology on learning. This important resource offers college and university leaders and policy makers an analysis of the impact of these forces of change and includes suggestions for creating an effective higher education market as well as a call for a renewed focus on the public purposes of higher education.
Customer Reviews:
Rarely have I loathed an "academic" book so vehemently.......2006-04-24
First, I completely disagree with the major conclusions of this book, and frankly, even with its moral perspective. I find it to be a one-sided work of propoganda which takes the form of an apologetic for the homogenization of the intellectual professions. This work is a disgrace, highly misleading, and even dangerous if taken literally or adopted in whole as the correct perspective. Evidence presented is extremely selective and the interpretation is guided mainly by the authors' predetermined values. Forget about a balanced, multi-perspective book here. Aside from the dry academic tone of the title, it is anything but an 'objective' or multi-perspective book. Risks are glossed over and lamentable changes to the academic profession are encouraged to be taken as far as possible in this book. It is a wolf in sheep's clothing - a book pretending to be by and for academics, with an academic mindset; instead, it's a book by managers who, if they could, would devise standardized tests to determine the competence of professors. People who see homogenization as inevitable and even desirable. Not my kind of people. The most disturbing thing about this book is that it is sadly, correct and useful as a vision of where higher education may be headed, and it's a dystopian place. The state (and particularly, the powerful class that manages the state) does want to control universities very badly, and they are finding "subtle" ways to do it. This book offers a glimpse into some of the things they plan to do in order to end academic freedom while giving the public (and even some very misled academics) the illusion that academic freedom still exists.
Recommended for college professors and administrators .......2004-12-06
A collaborative effort by academics Frank Newman, Lara Couturier, and Jamie Scurry, The Future of Higher Education: Rhetoric, Reality and the Risks of the Market is a no-nonsense scrutiny of the risks inherent in making higher education a market rather than a regulated public sector institution. Revealing findings from a thorough four-year examination of the forces transforming the American system of higher education today, The Future of Higher Education covers intensified competition between institutions, globalization of colleges and universities, the increase of for-profit and virtual institutions, the growing influence of technology on learning and its methodologies, and much more. A critical account that suggests strategies for adapting to the new era without sacrificing the virtues of the old, The Future of Higher Education is especially recommended for college professors and administrators seeking to chart a successful future for themselves and their students.
Customer Reviews:
Very helpful for the regular classroom teacher.......1998-12-02
This book is a useful mix of theory and specific strategies, of reports on current research and examples of best practices. After reading it I think I understand better the dynamics of conflict in the classroom, and I also have some new things to try in crisis situations. It is a huge and ovewhelming book which most teachers would avoid, so I cut it apart into five sections. I handed the sections to teachers, who read them enthusiastically when they would never have tackled the whole book. It can be read like that, in sections, and not necessarily in order. The content is highly recommended but the format must be made teacher friendly!
The best single-source for working with troubled students!.......1997-02-11
Long and Morse have written and collected a panorama of articles which collectively define the state of the art in aproaches to troubled and troubling students. This book goes beyond the traditonal to the truly insightful interventions which focus holistically on the child or youth and his struggles within systems. Strategies for regular education and special education teachers are clearly described, and a list of resources in areas from sexual abuse to grief are inculuded. The book begins with a collection of short stories from contemporary literature in an intoduction to the reader into the minds and lives of children who are emotionally disturbed. Conflict in the Classroom has been a classic in the field for 30 years, and this 1996 edition is as worthy of the same honor as its fine earlier editions
Book Description
Designed to help parents avoid the miseducation of young children. Dr. Elkind shows us the very real difference between the mind of a pre-school child and that of a school age child.
Customer Reviews:
Preschoolers At Risk.......2007-05-17
This book is an excellent read for parents and educators/teachers of young children. Many early childhood education center teachers make the mistake of trying to teach too much academics to preschool age children and it is the children's loss. The value of play in learning is underestimated. Elkind gives a professional voice to a very important subject.
Twenty years after publication, still has relevance.......2007-03-22
The author was writing a lot about the 80's "superkid" syndrome, but it still has relevance to parents today. He explores why so many of us are so fixated on "educating" preschoolers, and at younger ages than ever before. He points out how this can be detrimental, even when parents have the best of intentions.
That said, I think the reader will find certain things in this book dated. I don't think I've heard of anyone trying to teach his or her infant to swim in recent days. The 80s "superkid" syndrome is kind of ridiculed today. If you ever saw the 80s movie "Baby Boom", the scene where Diane Keaton is talking to the mothers in the park who are obsessing over preschools comes to mind.
To me, the dated parts were interesting in a historical sort of way, but the real value of the book was in how it examined what our preschoolers actually need, despite what the current trends may be.
An old book with a timeless message.......2006-06-27
Elkind gets criticized a lot for pushing for parents to be "child-centered." I disagree. He's right. If you pursue things for your child taking into account their best interest that is what is called "parenting." The parent centered time is called "before children."
With that said, this book, with a great message, is choppy and ambiguous, particularly the first 100 pages. It could probably be condensed. I think his best point in the book is that just because something can be done early does not mean it should be done (his example: toilet training a 6 week old baby through the use of suppositories.)
That message, and properly identifying it earlier in the book, would have made this a much better read. With that said, I still gave the book 5 stars because the message is timeless. In this day and age of the pressures built into "No Child Left Behind," college students jumping off of buildings over academic pressure, and kids going to formal programs for things that used to be learned via general human interaction, there is no better time to read this and heed his wise advice.
Don't shrug off his message because you think he does not agree with your lifestyle. Simply read what he is saying and see what is worth incorporating and what you can comfortably disregard.
Deeply disappointed.......2005-10-22
I picked up this book looking for thoroughly documented explanations as to why we shouldn't be sending our 2 year old to preschool. I was deeply disappointed to find a book full of sweeping generalizations, offensive assumptions, and poorly researched conclusions. It's obvious that the author feels very strongly about this subject: he comes out swinging, typecasting various sorts of parents and lobbing insults at any even remotely related parenting topic with which he happens to disagree. (For example, did you know that allowing your child to watch the birth of a younger sibling is tantamount to child abuse and will scar him or her for life?) I agreed with his basic premise before I picked it up but couldn't have been more disgusted by the time I put it down. I will have to continue the search for a well-researched book on this subject. Don't waste your money on this one.
Read a library copy.......2003-12-28
I was deeply disappointed by this book. I was seeking a reasoned presentation of the case against early teaching, and instead ended up with this unsupported diatribe by a man who seems to misunderstand a lot of what he opposes.
The alarm bells went off early. In the first chapter Elkind repeatedly talks about "pushing" and "pressuring" children, using loaded language to try to turn us against the idea of teaching them. Someone should explain to him that it's only pushing if the child resists. I have also read the pro side of this controversy, particularly Glenn Doman, who emphasizes repeatedly that parent and child should both be having a wonderful time and you should stop immediately if that isn't so.
I could understand the casual use of loaded language, since this is a polemic. However, Elkind continues mischaracterizing left and right. He blithely slots parents who teach their young children into one of several cute categories, and proceeds to describe them in improbable detail. For instance, "Another group of parents want their children to become Olympic-class athletes or competitors. Gold-Medal parents tend to be in routine middle-management positions with little hope for advancement . . . ." And he goes on like that for some time, describing these so-called Gold-Medal parents as if everyone teaching their child a sport at a young age were precisely identical. And there are lots of other cute labels, like Outward Bound parents and Prodigy parents. Apparently we are to see people who teach their young children as "types" rather than as people. And these absurd stereotypes are not supported in any way; he just blandly asserts them as fact.
Elkind talks about one boy who was taught early and toilet-trained late, attempting to imply that these things are connected. But "late" toilet-training is quite common these days, and we see many three-year-olds in diapers whose parents have never taught them anything.
He also talks about one boy who was taught early and is doing quite well, and congratulates the mother on her son's good luck as if the boy had dodged a bullet. But he presents no statistics to back this up. He just thinks the boy must have been lucky because his happiness doesn't accord with Elkind's views on the dangers of early teaching.
Where are his figures on how taught vs. untaught children fare later in life? There aren't any. Although the "nine pages of notes and bibiography" mentioned by a previous reviewer do exist, many of them are references to things like _Time_ and _Money_. Others are citations of the works he's slamming. There's very little research cited, and he is obviously cherry-picking his sources.
I became disgusted with the book when I reached the part where Elkind argues that children should not be exposed to computer use. He briefly mentions Seymour Papert, the creator of LOGO, but takes the tone that this idea was outrageous and completely omits to mention Papert's impressive results. This is a fine example of the cherry-picking I mentioned.
He then makes a statement which is truly awesome in its ignorance. He asserts "The problem with such programs is that they presuppose a level of mental ability higher than that which they seek to encourage. Put differently, a child who really understands programming is at a sufficiently high level of mental development that learning programming is not really going to promote additional mental development."
Programming does not promote mental development, according to Elkind. But anyone who has ever learned to program, as a small child or an older child or a teenager or an adult, knows better. In fact it is difficult to think of anything which does more to promote mental development, although music and pure mathematics rival it. Perhaps the basic art of reading is even more effective, but Elkind is also against teaching small children to read!
Elkind suggests a set of blocks instead of LOGO. A set of blocks is great, but why on Earth can't a child have both?
This is already too long, so I'll end the blow-by-blow analysis. In summary, I suggest checking this book out of the library if you're curious about it. It certainly isn't worth a place in one's permanent home library.
I remain in search of a book which can make a reasoned case against early teaching of children who enjoy it. It's difficult to disagree with the idea that one shouldn't place tiny children in a high-pressure all-day academic program, but few people were ever arguing for that in the first place.
Product Description
Ensuring Success in Math and Science addresses the systemic and instructional problems behind failure in math and science, defines long-range goals, and describes the research and philosophy that support those goals. This resource also discusses how to redevelop math and science curricula to ensure success for all children, especially those at risk, and the importance of collaboration in implementing a curriculum that addresses each student s needs. Also included are examples of teacher-tested math and science lessons plus lessons that families and caregivers can use to reinforce math and science achievement at home. Ensuring Success in Math and Science further develops the ideas presented in the author s earlier work, Nurturing At-Risk Youth in Math & Science.
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