Archive for the ‘Book Summaries’ Category

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt is essentially a textbook on morality and how it has impacted our political life. If you want to understand why we are so divided and what we can do about it, this book is for you. Although he has worked for democrat administrations, he has managed to make this book very fair and balanced. It belongs in your library.

Introduction

• Rodney King’s quote from 1992 “Can we all get along” is compared to a lesser known quote of his. “We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out.” So why are we so easily divided into hostile groups, each one certain of its righteousness? This book deals with this big question and human morality in general, which has made civilization possible. Get ready for a tour of human nature and history from the perspective of moral psychology. The author’s hope is this the book will help us all get along.

Part I Intuitions Come First, Strategic Reasoning Second – 1. Where Does Morality Come From?

• There are many studies that show how morals are largely a function of culture. Christian and muslim cultures, for example have different moral beliefs about how women should be treated. Another part is self-constructed as children develop. Kids can spot harm when they see it and uniformly think it’s wrong. People also have gut feelings, particularly about disgust and disrespect, that can drive their reasoning.

2. The Intuitive Dog and Its Rational Tail

• People reason and people have moral intuitions. The author makes a case that reason is the servant of the passions. Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second. Social Institutionalism adds a social context. If you ask someone to believe something that violates their intuitions they will look for some reason not to believe you. If you agree with the author that institutionalism might be true, then let’s keep going.

3. Elephant Rule

• Johnathan uses the metaphor of the elephant and the rider where the elephant is our intuitive automatic response and the rider is our reasoning brain. Studies show that brains evaluate instantly and constantly. Social and political judgements depend on quick intuitive flashes, bad smells, and tastes can influence our judgement. Psychopaths reason but don’t feel, and babies feel but don’t reason.
• Intuition is where most of the action is when it comes to moral philosophy, but reason matters. Friendly conversations are more likely to change your mind than aggressive arguments. We have evolved an inner lawyer that uses our brain power to find evidence to support what we want to believe rather than an inner scientist or an inner judge.

4. Vote for Me (Here’s Why)

• Our moral thinking is much more like a politician searching for votes than a scientist searching for truth. People invest their IQ in buttressing their own case rather than in exploring the entire issue more fully and evenhandedly. Now that we have access to search engines on our cell phones, we can call up a team of supportive scientists for almost any conclusion.
• The partisan brain has been reinforced so many times for performing mental contortions that free it from unwanted beliefs. Extreme partisanship may be literally addictive. Each reasoner is really good at one thing: finding evidence to support the position he or she already holds, usually for intuitive reasons. Conscious reasoning functions like a press secretary who automatically justifies any position taken by the president. The worship of reason is a delusion.

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The School Mission Statement: Values, Goals, & Identities in American Education by Steven E. Stemler and Damian J. Bebell (©2012, Eye On Education: Larchmont, NY) is a must-have resource for any school or district creating or reevaluating their mission statement. If you would like your educational outcomes to align with your statements of purpose, this is a great place to start. By understanding the themes and ideas within American education, you will be prepared to formulate your school’s mission statement. In addition to a smart discussion of 11 common themes schools use, you get 111 examples from a diverse range of k-12 schools. Click the Amazon icon below to order a copy for each member of your school leadership team.

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The Teachers: a Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession by Alexandra Robbins is a fine piece of qualitative research that uses three year-long case studies and hundreds of interviews as data. It details the many difficulties that teachers may face. Even though we don’t know the percentage of teachers facing each difficulty, we do know that they the are somewhat common. (Doug: I’ve seen them all.) This should gain more respect for the profession. I only wish every journalist, pundit, and parent could read it. Get your copy today.

Prologue

• To gain the expertise necessary to write this book, Alexandra conducted case studies of three teachers over an entire school year. She conducted hundreds of interviews with other teachers. She also did some substitute teaching and a semester of long-term substitute work. Each chapter contains stories from the three teachers she studied for a year including aspects of their private lives. They all appear to be outstanding teachers. Penny teaches 4th Grade, Rebecca teaches 6th grade math, and Miguel is a middle school special education teacher. The final section of each chapter contains anecdotes and generalizations from the remainder of her research.

1. August: Introduction: “It Makes My Soul Happy”: What Teachers Endure and Why They Stay

• Here we meet the three teachers Alexandra studies along with some of their issues. While many think that teachers have the summer off, they are often required to attend professional development sessions that vary widely in quality and effectiveness. Funding is often short for supplies so they often purchase what they need themselves. Leaders are often a source of frustration as they can’t reliably find the money for supplies or substitutes and require teachers to cover additional classes.
• Teacher salaries seem to be the biggest problem today as they haven’t kept up with inflation. (Doug: My starting salary of $8,500 in 1971 would be over $63,000 today.) Nationally they make 23% less than the average professional with comparable training, and up to 30% less in some states. The real reason for teacher shortages is mostly poor compensation. By some estimates 70% of teachers work a second job during the school year and most get summer jobs. They are vital, but not generally highly respected.

2. September: “STOP TOUCHING MY CAR”: Parent Aggression and the Culture of Teacher Blaming

• This book focuses on anecdotes that make for a great series of case studies, but do not feature much quantitative data to support generalizations. The main theme is that parents often blame the teacher for the shortcomings and misbehavior of their children. They often send emails when grades are an issue and expect teachers to change them. Administrators aren’t always supportive of their teachers. There are many anecdotes here that seem believable to me.
• Another theme deals with how teachers have to contend with special ed students and gifted students in the same class. Special education students in general education classes often get sent back to the room of their special education teacher. Ironically, this may seem like a reward. There are good tips here for how to deal with situations where teachers overreact to student behavior.

3. October: “I Would Have Done It for Any Child”: Teachers Are Heroes – but They Shouldn’t Have to Be

• Here we learn that Penny the 6th grade math teacher left an abusive husband and was mostly shunned by a teacher clique where she taught. (Doug: I’ve seen such cliques.) The middle school special education teacher Miguel suffers from bad administrators who want to mainstream all special ed students without planning, training, or support staff. Mismanagement has impacted his health.
• Rebecca the fourth grade teacher teaches students about mindsets. (Doug: See my summary of Mindset by Carol Dweck.) She wishes that she could differentiate (individualize) learning more as a one-size-fits-all lesson plans only work well for the kids in the middle. Like many, the amount of paperwork leaves little time for her own life.
• Alexandra finds that most teachers will do anything they can for students in need. She cites one teacher who adopted a student and another who donated a kidney. Most teachers (94%) spend their own money on supplies and personal times for students and families. While 44% leave by five years, districts with strong mentoring programs do much better. While cliques are an issue, teachers do a lot to support each other in their buildings and beyond via conferences and online resources (Doug: Like this blog for example.)

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The Test: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed with Standardized Testing – But You Don’t Have to Be by Anya Kamenetz explains in some detail the ten things wrong with state tests along with some history and politics. She goes on to tell educators and parents what they should do to help kids survive the madness. Anyone who dislikes state test should get this book.

Introduction

• Anya starts with the premise that high-stakes tests are stunting children’s spirits, adding stress to family life, demoralizing teachers, undermining schools, paralyzing the education debate, and gutting our country’s future competitiveness. She also cites Campbell’s law which can be stated as “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” You give people a number and they will work towards it to the detriment of all other measures of success. They also harm the poor, minority, and English language learners they were designed to help as people with means look to purchase homes that are served by schools with high test scores. This book starts by defining the problem and ends with solutions as to what we need do of fix it.

1. Ten Arguments Against Testing

• 1. We are testing the wrong things. They mostly test the application of memorized routines to familiar problems in only two subjects. Novel situations that require thinking aren’t covered. There are lots of important things they don’t test.
• 2. Tests waste time and money. The tests along with test prep, practice tests, and field tests eat up tons of time. This doesn’t count testing imposed by school districts and tests given by teachers for grades and to direct instruction. Kids who struggle usually get more of this in addition to extra time to take the tests. The costs add up.
• 3. They are making kids hate school and turning parents into preppers. The process is boring and putting teachers’ and principals’ jobs on the line adds to needless stress. For some, the anxiety depresses performance. Rich parents pay for prep test classes and home quality time is sacrificed for parent-directed test prep.
• 4. They are making teachers hate teaching. Outside authorities have the final say on how teachers do their job. For many states, teacher evaluations and tenure depend on test scores. Research shows that ratings for individual teachers are highly unstable, varying from year to year and one test to another. Retirement and attrition rates have increased and job satisfaction has plummeted.
• 5. They penalize diversity. Poor and minority kids fail more and their schools are often punished or closed. Schools with higher rates of students with disabilities are in the same boat. To increase percent proficient scores, some teachers focus attention on students near the proficiency line. It’s clear that standardization is the enemy of diversity.
• 6. They cause teaching to the test. NCLB testing focuses on easily tested portions of reading and math skills. Therefore, teachers will arranges their teaching to place an undue focus on what can be tested. Studies indicate that as a result, teachers spend more time talking while students sit, listen, and don’t think much.
• 7. The High Stakes Temp Cheating. There is no doubt that a good deal of cheating has taken place since the tests were introduced, and schools more likely to cheat are schools with poor scores that tend to have poor and minority students. There are also reports of students cheating on SAT exams.
• 8. They Are Gamed By States Until They Become Meaningless. NCLB allowed every state to create its own assessment regime, cutoff scores, and progress measures. Since the states are the customers, testing companies give them what they want. Furthermore, it’s people working for the states that make the cutoff decisions. When political leaders set educational standards, they tend to act with political motivation. In short, there is no accountability.
• 9. They Are Full of Errors. There is no doubt that many state tests contain questions with ambiguous or wrong answers. This is probably due to the fact that people hired to write and grade tests are low paid ($15/hour) and not required to have relevant degrees or experience in education. They are also likely to be temporary workers. Even the SAT has made the essay portion optional as the scores didn’t predict grades or success in college.
• 10. The Next Generation of Tests Will Make Things Even Worse. With the introduction of the Common Core Standards comes tests with higher difficulty and fewer testing options. New tests will use computers for administration, which means the school’s computers will be tied up for long periods doing testing as opposed to supporting student projects. They will still test limited subjects in limited ways, be error prone, coachable, and likely to distort the curriculum.

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