Advocacy for above average students.

The Academic Adventures of Laura Bridges." An Introduction to Educational Architecture Therapy by James P. Bridges; New Philosopher Press; 1999; $34.95 for hard spiral laminate, $29.95 for soft spiral laminate; available from http://www.newphilosopherpress.bigstep.com.

The Academic Adventures of Laura Bridges: An Introduction to Educational Architecture Therapy is written as a source of inspiration for parents of potentially gifted students as well as a resource for those struggling to optimize their children's education in an often unresponsive public school system. Through detailing the experiences of his family, Bridges presents their compelling story as a model of successful advocacy from which others, including educators and school counselors, might learn to deal with the "inconvenience" of an above average student.

Goal for the Book

The writing of The Academic Adventures of Laura Bridges was inspired by two events occurring in the summer of 1986. First, the author's daughter Laura (a pseudonym) graduated from high school at age 14 and became the youngest female to enroll at Dartmouth College. Second, shortly thereafter, the author met with a graduate student whose assignment was to record an interview with the parent of a gifted child. Revisiting and transcribing a tape of the interview several years later moved Bridges to create this book, a generative sharing of what he and his family learned through their daughter's journey from kindergarten through college.

In addition to simply retelling the story, Bridges also provides a collection of resources that he used along the way in order to make sense of the experience and that led to successful advocacy for his daughter. He has transformed these resources into Educational Architectural Therapy and stresses the need for parents to do market research in education in order to utilize the value of program assessment when interacting with school personnel. In writing from the viewpoint of an outsider looking in on the public education system, Bridges provides an alternate perspective to traditional educational theorists, researchers, and practitioners who may not see the proverbial forest for the trees.

A Look at Content

Chapter one, "Vision and Mission," tells the story of how the book came to be, explains Bridges' goal in writing The Academic Adventures of Laura Bridges, and provides an introductory outline for the reader's implementation of Educational Architecture Therapy. Specifically, Bridges states his desire to answer the question "How can a person in a computerized, information-driven, democratic society exercise power effectively and responsibly to fill a meritorious and legitimate need, either personal or family member, in the face of societal indifference, neglect, or opposition?" (p. 2). He describes the answer as having three components. First is the "education" of gathering data to meet the educational needs of his daughter or, for that matter, any academically talented student. Second is the "architecture" of putting that data together into a knowledge structure. Third is the "therapeutic relief" for parents of doing their best to get their child's educational needs met.

Chapter two, a "fabricated recasting and transforming" (p. 1) of the original graduate student interview, represents the majority of the book. In the interview, Bridges provides a detailed narrative of the experiences his family had with teachers, administrators, and school boards. Bridges illustrates the rigidity of some traditional school personnel with the example of Laura's first-grade teacher, who "finished out the year but did not return" after Bridges wrote "a scathing letter to my state's public instruction superintendent" regarding the teacher having contacted family services due to Laura not having been in her seat by lunch count. In contrast, Bridges praised Laura's second-grade teacher who channeled Laura's academic enthusiasm into positive areas, including a contract for correcting the teacher's spelling mistakes on the black board. In this chapter, Bridges has divided stories into five chronological stages, leading up to petitioning the state school hoard for early graduation. He also dialogues with d,e interviewer about "relevant miscellany" regarding factors involved in Laura's success and the foundations of Educational Architecture Therapy.

In Chapter Three, Bridges provides an overview on gifted education, organized into 10 parent-directed categories such as "The Parent Market Researcher," "Say Hi to 'ERIC.'" and "The Educator's Attitudes and Values." This chapter is presented as a collection of data and resources available to families with academically talented children. Chapter Four builds on this information with an action plan to enhance parents' abilities to advocate for an effective gifted and talented program in their community. This includes information on a "solution" to the gifted dilemma, a primer in the right questions to ask of school officials, and a guideline for creating such a program.

Chapter Five deals with the problem of conquering the educational system's "fact-value syndrome," exemplified by a Dartmouth professor's handwritten comment on an essay Laura had submitted. Bridges provides strategies to combat this syndrome and recommends that parents to become proactive owners of local school districts.

The book also includes an appendix consisting of a letter of support from a professor emeritus, an index, and a glossary.

Limitations

Bridge feels strongly enough about the inherent wrongness of the Dartmouth professor's critical comment that he repeats it in his summary of fact and value market research in education. However, the same comment made about his daughter's essay potentially might also apply to the content of The Academic Adventures of Laura Bridges. The "evidence" presented is largely anecdotal with much of the book presenting Bridges' perception of what is or isn't good for the gifted. An indicator of the lack of grounded evidence taken and built upon from previous research is suggested by the book's lack of a reference section or even bibliography. An additional limitation is that the bulk of the book is the original interview with Bridges, somewhat reconstructed through his current lens for understanding what took place. During the interview portion of the book, constituting 129 of 162 pages of text, Bridges sometimes comes across as too self-congratulatory, presenting his perspective as the way things "are" and attributing external events as resulting entirely from his own actions. In this way, the facts sometimes come across as being conveniently made to fit an existing worldview.

Strengths

The Academic Adventures of Laura Bridges offers a narrative presented through the eyes of a parent who has successfully interacted with the current educational system to meet the needs of his gifted daughter. The book offers insight into the author's framework for making sense of what he endured and how he understands his family's success at their undertaking. Moreover, Bridges' passion for his topic and overwhelming desire to make his strategies available to others in a similar situation are evident throughout the book. In fact, Bridges' services as an Educational Architecture Consultant are available through the publisher's web page, listed at the top of this review. Finally, perhaps the most important contribution of Bridges' story is the alternate perspective it provides to educational professionals of how someone outside of the system was successful at achieving what is thought to be the collective responsibility of all people involved in the culture of school: the best education possible for a student.

Applications for School Counselors

School counselors working from a developmental perspective are called upon to be managers and consultants with all stakeholders in an educational environment. Bridges seems to have succeeded at consulting effectively with other stakeholders in his daughter's educational program by acting intuitively from his perspective as a parent. School counselors taking a developmental perspective such as the ASCA's best practices are called upon to be student advocates and provide an alternate viewpoint to teachers and administrators, similar to the position taken in this book.

Concluding Remarks

The perspective of those outside of the educational system provides valuable insight for transforming outdated and self-perpetuating practices in some districts. This book offers educators and parents an eye-opening narrative of the positive and negative experiences of a family whose child would seem the academic ideal of that for which the system strives.

Reviewed by Scott A. Wickman, Ph.D., an assistant professor, Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb. E-mail: [e-mail]