The Call to Brilliance: A True Story to Inspire Parents and Educators (Paperback)

by Resa Steindel Brown (Author), Joseph Chilton Pearce (Introduction), William Glasser (Foreword)
Key Phrases: Warner Bros, Moorpark College, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In an engaging memoir, award-winning educator, Resa Steindel Brown is drawn to the astonishing discovery that all children are born brilliant. With insightful commentary, she recalls her own trials as a student and teacher in our industrial, one-size-fits-all educational system. Then she encounters the needs of her young son. Finding a fit is like trying to stuff an odd-shaped child into a square hole. The love for her child propels her on a journey that sweeps her own children, and the children around her, into a learning environment driven by joy, exuberance and passion instead of heartbreak and defeat.

Unable to read until ages nine and ten, they entered college at eleven and twelve, became systems administrators, chief technology officers, trained with the Berlin Opera and Hamburg Ballet, created digital images used in the film "Lord of the Rings," presented software solutions to TRW, Pac Bell, Industrial Light & Magic, NSA, Sony, and more, all before the ages of eighteen.

The Call to Brilliance shows parents and educators how to redirect children's challenges into strengths, discover children's interests, fuel their interests into passions, and their passions into brilliance.

About the Author
Resa Steindel Brown has been uncovering the brilliance in children for over thirty-five years. She excels in building powerful educational processes, environments and schools that enable children to find the innate and individual passion that leads to brilliance. Her work has been featured on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and more. She has been involved in public and private alternative education since 1970 and homeschooling since 1987. She homeschooled her own three children from kindergarten into college. Resa is credentialed by the University of California at Los Angeles in Elementary, Secondary and University multiple subject areas. She has a specialization in reading and has taught special education. She also has a Master of Fine Arts in theater arts with full minors in English and psychology. Resa is unique in that she successfully implements educational systems and philosophies that experts have been talking about for years.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 311 pages
• Publisher: Fredric Press (January 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977836908
• ISBN-13: 978-0977836901
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #474,129 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thinking outside the schoolhouse, June 8, 2007

By	Karen Dinino (Woodland Hills, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For too long in our schools, "different" has been another word for "wrong." Yet, as we learned in school, some of the world's greatest thinkers and artists were different--didn't "succeed" in traditional schools and often were kicked out or dropped out. As Resa beautifully explains, the problem is not that children are being 'left behind.' The problem is a reluctance to leave behind an educational system that often crushes passion and medicates creativity. This book calls us as parents to reawaken our own brilliance, reminds us how to see brilliance in our children, and shows us how to keep that brilliant light shining and expanding. You will see yourself, your school, and your child differently after reading it.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mother's Perspective, March 5, 2007

By	G. B. Long (Dandridge, TN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found the extent to which I could relate to this inspirational book amazing. It was so close to home that I wept throughout the book. It is an American Tragedy that all of our children must be educated according to an agenda - one-size fits all. Our educational system does not allow for a nuturing environment. Today each childs individualism is labeled as a disorder. My child's early report cards reinforced his failures and his self esteem suffered. By following the principles underscored in The Call To Brilliance my son began to excel. This "F" student will enter college on a full scholarship in the fall. The parent of every labeled child should have a Resa in their life.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Parents need to read this book, November 9, 2006

By	Tad W. Cronn (http://www.the-free-lance.com) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Resa Steindel Brown's "The Call to Brilliance" is a rare life-changing work. As much a personal story about an amazing family as it is philosophical treatise about modern education, this book reveals what has gone so wrong in our schools and takes you on a journey that reveals how to uncover the light of brilliance that is inside our children. A practitioner and advocate of homeschooling, Brown points out that public schools were designed for an industrial society to produce conforming drones who don't mind endless tedium. She suggests that an entirely new model is needed in order to unleash children's native creativity and curiosity and help them become truly functioning adults. For parents, this is a must read.

-- Tad Cronn
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