Provides a realistic account of American education and the difference that a good teacher can make in a child's life and in our society.

The author accuses compulsory education methods of stifling imaginations and critical thinking skills, and discusses individuals such as Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, who are considered to have exceptional minds, even though they but did not follow traditional education paths.

Counsels parents of school-aged children on how to overcome tendencies toward overprotectiveness to allow children to develop independence.

In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they've never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy. What is it like to be a child in the world's new education superpowers? In a global quest to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embedded in Finland, South Korea, and...

"The Child and the Curriculum" is a very insightful essay by John Dewey that displays a unique approach to the Child and the Curriculum. John Dewey understood that a child's development and learning styles had nothing to do with being rational or orderly, but that the child must learn in their current state of mind which is very different from an adult. This 1902 essay shows how children integrate educational experiences into a continuum of knowledge. This...

For two years, beginning in 1988, Jonathan Kozol visited schools in neighborhoods across the country, from Illinois to Washington D.C., and from New York to San Antonio. He spoke with teachers, principals, superintendents, and, most important, children. What he found was devastating. Not only were schools for rich and poor blatantly unequal, the gulf between the two extremes was widening—and it has widened since. The urban schools he visited were...

An introduction to Questing, one of the fastest growing recreational-educational activities in the country, and explains how communities can organize their own treasure hunt.

"When parents are told their child has a learning disability, they need more information. Thinking Differently is just the resource to meet that need. David Flink, leader of Eye to Eye, a national mentoring program for children with learning differences, explains each learning disability in layman's terms to prepare parents to speak knowledgeably with teachers about their child's specific challenges..."--

One of the most sustained and vigorous public debates today is about the value and, crucially, the price of college. But an unspoken, outdated assumption underlies all sides of this debate: if a young person works hard enough, they'll be able to get a college degree and be on the path to a good life. That's simply not true anymore, says Sara Goldrick-Rab. Quite simply, college is far too expensive for many people today, and the confusing mix of federal,...

"Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Christie, and Cory Booker were ready to reform our failing schools. They got an education. When Mark Zuckerberg announced in front of a cheering Oprah audience his $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Schools -- and to solve the education crisis in every city in America -- it looked like a huge win for then-mayor Cory Booker and governor Chris Christie. But their plans soon ran into a constituency not so easily moved...