Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #208692 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.com Review
Nowhere has the flight from quality plaguing American life these days been more obvious than in our primary and secondary schools -- on the whole, the graduates seem less well-read and less well-spoken, less knowledgeable and less able to compute. In this book, Charles Sykes asks why, and lays most of the blame at the feet of the trainers of teachers, the writers of textbooks and the educational policy wonks who influence them. He convincingly shows that in many different school systems, and in many different academic fields, with the help of goofy text-books, watered-down requirements and "recentered" test grade scales, American students have come to value feeling good about a subject over being good in it. Sykes's recommended reforms include abolishing the federal Department of Education and its state counterparts, abolishing undergraduate schools of education, establishing more alternative routes to teacher certification and merit raises for good teachers. Good ideas all -- now if we can only get politicians to put them into action!

From Publishers Weekly
Sykes argues that educators' emphasis on egalitarianism and building self-esteem have caused an eroding of true learning in the American classroom.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Sykes, who caused a stir in academia with his expose of higher education (The Hollow Men, Regnery Gateway, 1990), now aims his rhetoric at the secondary education establishment. Practically any educational reform theory put in practice within the past 50 years draws his fire. The outcome-based, gender-neutral, self-esteem-centered "feel-good learning" that typifies today's secondary education he sees as nothing but a quasi-psychology devoid of intellectual content and lacking in standards. The author is most emphatic when presenting case after case of the excesses of present-day educational practices. In international comparison, frequently Sykes's point of reference, American students feel far better about themselves than their international counterparts but have far fewer skills and abilities to warrant this. Even as he gives scant acknowledgment that parents, changing social norms, and media have some role in this situation, he places blame for the "dumbing down" of students on the schools. While Sykes's one-sided viewpoint and alarmist writing style take something away from his otherwise well-documented and well-constructed thesis, his book is sure to rouse controversy and is thus recommended for informed readers.?Arla Lindgren, St. John's Univ., New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Explained: Educators Gone Wild
A must-read investigation. Although now 12 years old, this book doesn't seem dated. Educators are still recycling the same old gimmick, which is basically to devise hifalutin excuses for teaching less.

The big shift is that Whole Word hit its peak just after this book was published, and has been in decline ever since. One feels hope at that. Still, the overwhelming impression is one of sadness. It's as if we put hippies and illegal aliens in charge of our banks and water works. You wouldn't expect faucets and ATM's to operate smoothly.

"A Nation at Risk," the report issued by a huge government panel in 1983, stated that our public schools seem to be managed by a foreign power intent on harming us. (I've always loved that deadpan bombshell.) If you would like to get to know that foreign power and hear them discuss their plans for your children, this is the book to read. Sykes did a huge amount of research. It's a serious and sober investigation.

Finally, it comes down to goals. If you think schools should be engaged in social engineering, that their job is to induce dumbing down and collectivism, you will cheer on the educators quoted throughout this book, and you will hate Sykes.

If, however, you think schools should be hugely concerned with reading, writing, arithmetic, etc., you'll thank Sykes for preparing this trenchant expose.

In the most recent government report, "Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century," experts are now saying that time is running out, and that public schools are killing our ability to maintain a high standard of living. How did our educators achieve such glorious failure? This book will show you all their techniques.

Didn't you get the email? Then why buy the book?
There's nothing new in this book. It's all the same clueless right-wing blather that was in Sykes' other book. This book is also a re-hash of the "chain letter" email, erroneously attributed to Bill Gates, that is still making its way around the Internets. (No doubt Charlie is trying to profit off of his association with that email.) Seriously, though, Charlie, we get it--you don't like public schools, you don't like government, you don't like infrastructure. Then why don't you DO something about it, rather than throwing stones from the outside vis-a-vis books like this one?

Dumb kids....smart teachers
Millionaire in 365 Days: The Daily Plan to Get There

Unbelievable revelation as to how our kids are dumbed down....and it is getting worse each year....while it is all covered up....we need to know this if we have children in school because we are NOT getting our money's worth and our kids are getting a dumb education by dumb teachers (of course not all teachers)...but the massive unions push the lowest common denominator on our kids in order to increase their memberships....while the whole time "Johnny can't read".