End the Biggest Educational and Intellectual Blunder in History: A $100,000 Challenge to Our Top Educational Leaders [Hardcover]

Norman W Edmund (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2005

This book, according to the author, ends the misunderstandings about the scientific method - the complete method of creative problem solving and decision-making. The author has conducted extensive research in this field for over 15 years and shows the misunderstandings have created great harms in the educational field and in most other fields, including personal lives. Surveys have shown that the public is continually dissatisfied with the educational efforts. This book will be important reading for all those interested in better education, better thinking, and a better society.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Norman Edmund's storied business career began in 1942 in a bedroom in his mother's apartment with $300 and a $9 classified ad. When he retired 33 years later, the internationally renowned Edmund Scientific Co. in Barrington, New Jersey occupied 69,000 square feet and distributed a million catalogs a year. For 15 years after his retirement, Edmund conducted specialized research of the scientific method. He spent more than $2.5 million in expenditures and time, including the purchase of more than 3,000 books. He has filled more than 16 file cabinets with relevant material. Having perhaps conducted more research into the topic than anyone else alive today, he uncovered a glaring mistake - the blunder - concerning academic and educational misunderstandings of the scientific method. His effort to promote interest in science has been praised by many, including legendary astronomer Carl Sagan and the pilot of Apollo 8, William Anders.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Scientific Method Publishing (July 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963286668
• ISBN-13: 978-0963286666
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,551,795 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For ANYONE concerned with the state of education in the U.S., January 7, 2006

By 

MR. B - See all my reviews

This review is from: End the Biggest Educational and Intellectual Blunder in History: A $100,000 Challenge to Our Top Educational Leaders (Hardcover)

As a teacher, I highly recommend this book to others. I began reading the book expecting the usual condemnation of teachers and schools. This is not the case as the book is supportive of schools and teachers. Inside you will find praise for John Dewey, a discussion of educational movements and fads, the "look say" and phonics methods of reading instruction, methods of math instruction, methods of science instruction, testing and more testing, No Child Left Behind, and more. The main thrust of the book is a very interesting case for teaching the scientific method. You may know this method as problem solving, discovery learning, or by many other names. The book is extremely well researched and states its case quite well. Should the scientific method be taught in schools? I suggest that you read the book, check the references, and decide for yourself.
The size of the book itself may put some people off, but the author wrote the book specifically for people to be able to "skip read" the parts that interest them. I read it straight through as I did not want to miss anything. I agree with the author and add my name to legendary astronomer Carl Sagan and the pilot of Apollo 8, William Anders, and others, as praising the need for teaching the scientific method.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book for America, February 25, 2006

By 

William Clovis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: End the Biggest Educational and Intellectual Blunder in History: A $100,000 Challenge to Our Top Educational Leaders (Hardcover)

Some books are really important. Darkness at Noon changed a French election. Uncle Tom's Cabin solidified Northern opinion against slavery. End the Biggest Educational and Intellectual Blunder in history by Norman W. Edmund addresses American education's neglecting to teach the scientific method of reasoning through all levels of education. This has important consequences in the real world: See Chapter 9 The Absurd Disaster in the Teaching of Reading.
Page 111 tells why more senior scientists have not rushed to support the book. Scientists learn the scientific method through apprenticeship. I learned medicine that way and learned it well. However this option is usually not avialable in the formative years of the late grades and high school. A viable alternative is training in rigorous logical thinking. Mr. Edmund describes its lack and shows it is part of the reason American students lag behind students abroad.
Mr. Demund has researched his subject thoroughly. He shows the reader in depth why our sciendce students are in trouble. Although his book is long, he has structured it so that readers can skip around yet follow the main points with ease. It is a cry for attention and an offer of help to an educational system that has only to look at its students'test scores to know that Amreica is in trouble. William L. Clovis, M. D.