The Schools We Need: And Why We Don't Have Them.

American K-12 education is among the least effective in the developed world. E.D. Hirsch, Jr., a professor at the University of Virginia who previously authored the best seller Cultural Literacy, says this is because for over fifty years our schools have operated on the assumption that challenging children academically is unnatural for them, that teachers do not need to know the subjects they teach, and that the learning process should be emphasized over the facts taught. He develops his argument in great historical detail, pointing out that America was born in the Enlightenment but bred in Romanticism. From the Romantic idea that civilization has a corrupting influence, Hirsch argues, we have developed an anti-fact, anti-rote learning, and anti-verbal bias.

The author believes that good schooling is "unnatural" and requires hard work by the students. He also advocates core curricula which emphasize factual knowledge, focused early childhood education, and commonality of content to help overcome the decline in our national communitarian spirit.

The book includes a "Critical Guide to Educational Terms and Phrases" which demystifies the jargon of the educational establishment. Hirsch includes it to "inoculate" prospective teachers and the general public from being seduced or bullied by educational rhetoric. He believes that "Promulgating this system of rhetoric has been an ongoing function of American schools of education, whose uniformity of language and doctrine ensures that every captive of the teacher-certification process and every professor trained to continue the tradition is imbued with educationally correct phrases."

Hirsch, who calls himself an "educational pragmatist," has put his ideas to work as president of the nonprofit Core Knowledge Foundation, whose grade-by-grade curriculum is followed by more than two hundred schools in thirty-seven states. He claims recent independent research on these schools has documented significant progress by both disadvantaged and advantaged students.

It seems to me there is no more pressing issue in this country than the future of our children. Hirsch's arguments deserve serious consideration.

Kenneth L. Baldwin. Stop Hurtful Words and Harmful Habits

Kenneth L. Baldwin, a therapist and the originator of Life Therapy and Bio-Semantics Training, has written an informative, entertaining and practical self-help book for those who want a "happier" life. Baldwin makes use of general semantics formulations in ways that the novice will easily understand, and the cognoscenti will appreciate. For example, he explains dating this way: "Ken [Baldwin.sup.1996] is not Ken [Baldwin.sup.1950], any pretty girl can tell you that."

Reading this book will help you:

* become aware of the common, distorted misuses of language and the kinds of problems misuse creates

* recognize the truly "dirty" words

* think about the words you choose to use - before you say them to yourself and others

* learn the connection between what you say to yourself and the ways your body reacts.

You will also be given ways to avoid wasteful fantasies (e.g., life is unfair), try out useful ones (e.g., doing something about a problem and evaluating the results), and plan creatively (e.g., ways to enrich life emotionally and aesthetically).

Baldwin applies Life Therapy to his Bio-Semantics training groups. He has had lots of success with this model (which is theoretically based on general semantics, Herbert Spiegler's self-hypnosis, Gestalt therapy and Zen). However, he believes you can gain personal growth just by reading this book and he's not alone in that opinion. Steve Allen, who has written a self-help book titled Dumbth that also praised general semantics, says, "Mr. Baldwin is onto something. Given that our society is in an unprecedented state of crisis, we are unlikely to work our way out of it unless we learn to think better and to communicate more clearly, even with our internal selves ... (this book) can be wonderfully helpful in that connection."

ALL REVIEWS BY MARTIN H. LEVINSON, PH.D.