Cheating Our Kids.Cheating Our Kids by Joe Williams, Palgrave Macmillan, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , N.Y., 2005. 264 pp. with index, $24.95 hardcover When the first chapter of a book on public education is entitled en·ti·tle tr.v. en·ti·tled, en·ti·tling, en·ti·tles 1. To give a name or title to. 2. To furnish with a right or claim to something: "Children Last" and the final chapter is "Kids CAN Come First," the reader can expect to find solutions in between. Indeed, author Joe Williams provides parents and the public a provocative analysis on how to return the focus of schools to preparing our children to succeed. Williams, an education writer for New York City's Daily News and a parent of two boys in the city's public school system, wrote Cheating Our Kids: How Politics and Greed Greed See also Stinginess. Almayer’s Folly lust for gold leads to decline. [Br. Lit.: Almayer’s Folly] Alonso Shakespearean symbol of avarice. [Br. Lit. Ruin Education to show how our once-admired system of education in America has lost its way. We have become so consumed with meeting the demands of grown-ups that we have forgotten that schools should exist to serve the needs of children, he writes. The author knows--and shows--how the education system has been captured by various groups including teachers and other school employees, politicians, unions, philanthropists, higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. institutions and vendors. Williams shows it is their interests and egos that are protected and advanced. But who speaks for the children? Williams suggests that parents can take back the education system through a new brand of "hardball hard·ball n. 1. Baseball. 2. Informal The use of any means, however ruthless, to attain an objective. hardball Noun US & Canad 1. politics" that demands accountability, competence and choice, and that shifts power from bureaucrats and union leaders back to concerned parents. His book concludes with a dozen practical steps to help parents accomplish that end. His advice includes such pointers as "if you don't blow the whistle on school problems, no one will" and "fight for transparency throughout the system." Reviewed by Ann S. Keim, superintendent, Pequea Valley School District The Pequea Valley School District is a school district of 1927 students educated in 5 schools by 123 teachers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the United States.[1] It is a member of Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit (IU) 13. , Kinzers, Pa. |
|
||||||||||||||||||

Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion