Customer Reviews

Coloring Outside the Lines: Raising A Smarter Kid by Breaking All the Rules

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Schank offers very straightforward advice on how to encourage children's natural curiosity for learning, their creativity and inquisitiveness. He's a strong critic of the emphasis so many schools are placing on testing, and "teaching to the test", but he backs up his criticism with empirical data on natural learning and his own experience as a teacher and a parent. His advice is clearly stated and easy to understand. This book provides down-to-earth, practical advice for anyone, parents grandparents, even teachers, interested in helping children become confident and creative.

I have two boys (12 & 15), and I say: Parents of toddlers especially, buy this book and watch the results.

MY FAVORITE PARTS: when Schank advocates - quiet time for "letting the mind wander" (because it gets the creative juices flowing) - "Talmudic" debates at the dinner table - training your kid to do tough-at-first things, like doing speeches without index cards.

Who is the book NOT for? Parents whose kids are numb from TV and Nintendo; whose kids eat with nannies; parents who insist that they always do things "as a family" (as opposed to one-on-one).

It's for parents who are themselves imaginative and don't cave easily and who are ready, willing and able to use every available interaction as a learning experience. Your kid will be worldly, sharp as a tack and a better parent when their turn comes.

As a former teacher, school administrator, and assistant superintendent of schools, I have a clear understanding of the limitations of our modern day educational system. Dr. Schank's book, Coloring Outside the Lines, hit the nail on the head. While some may believe that his description of a system that is actually detrimental to children, makes him an iconoclast. The reality is that he does not say anything that we do not already know. The difference that this book makes is that he provides parents with real solutions. This book speaks out on behalf of children, and on behalf of progress.

After working with thousands of frustrated parents throughout my career, It brings a smile to my face to see a book that so poignantly delivers the message that I have known, but could never say as a school administrator. The present structure of our schools was created during the turn-of-the-century. It no longer works! The practice of delivering information to children then expecting them to reiterate that information at a future date, is limited at best. Yet, this philosophy makes up the lion's share of our present instructional practices.

Instead of politely listening to parents as they share their frustrations with me, now I will hand them a copy of this book. This book provides a step by step guide for parents who want to raise healthy successful children despite the failures of our schools.

Thank you Dr. Schank for writing a book on behalf of progress.

If you think that the most important thing for kids to learn is to mind their elders you probably WON'T like this book. But if you think that parents' most important educational mission is to help their children develop the skills, motivation, and self-confidence to think for themselves, then this is a really GREAT book to read. Schank is the rare writer who knows how to turn theoretical insights about how the mind works and how people learn into straightforward practical advice. Concerned parents will find valuable advice here. I expect that the many teachers dissatisfied with the status quo will also find much of interest in this book.

Speaking as someone who went to one of the best school systems in the country - and did excellently there - Dr. Schank has given me a way to prevent having done to my children what was done to me. I came out of the public school system with great grades, and a top-notch education by almost anyone's standards - and no idea what to do with myself unless someone was telling me what I ought to be doing. I floundered around for years wondering what the heck was wrong with me if I couldn't use this brain that I obviously had, to do something with my life.

Dr. Schank provided useful answers. School never taught me what I needed to succeed anywhere but school. The passion and intense curiousity that my 2 year old exhibits every day, is a distant memory for me. For him though, it's natural, and it can be nutured and developed, and the school system isn't likely to do it. That means it's up to his parents.

Certainly not all that Dr. Schank says is wrong with schools is wrong with every school. Some are better, some are worse. He is pointing out though that even the very "best" schools are going to have problems teaching some real life skills because of an inherent problem of structure and paradigm.

Equally certainly not every child is going to react exactly like Dr. Schank's kids to every situation. Kids are different. Each and every one of them is unique. It's up to their parents to pay enough attention to know what is likely to work or not work with their own kid. What he provides is a lot of valuable ideas about the kinds of things parents can do to foster original thinking, passion and persistence in their kids. I can't ask for much more than that.

Roger Schank is a true visionary when it comes to education. Lots of people care passionately about learning and teaching, but Schank's book forces us to slow down and THINK about these matters. Children want to learn, and we need to help them do it. When parents are scrambling to buy the latest Harry Potter book, because they want to support their kids' interest in reading, it would be sensible for them to buy and read Schank's book, too.

Every parent of a school age child should read this fresh, irreverent and important book. At a time when competition for grades and standarized test scores, and for admision to top colleges, seems to have reached a frenzy, Dr. Schank offers a philosphy of learning that is almost radical in its emphasis on harnessing the child's natural inquisitiveness, and on generating in a child a passion for learning and creating. He also offers clear, practical advice on how parents can help their children to learn in hundreds of different ways, and how parents can help their children to get the most out of their school experiences. Throughout the book, the author reveals his own love for children and passionate desire to overcome social forces that would crush and stifle a child, and to help parents to allow their child's natural intelligence and spirit to soar.

As an former educator, I have seen first hand the poor state the education system is in today. Children are bored with standard teaching methods and the teachers are bound by what they can do to both pass the shcoolboards test requirements and keep the children interested. Dr Schank in Coloring Outside the Lines gives parents examples and insight in how to explore new ways to spark interest and excite young minds. Interest in subjects that the children will remember long after the test is over. I reccomeed this book to any parent that wants their child to be a survivor in todays schoolsystem and in life!

As another review states, this book is full of "very good and valid points" about helping your children become "smarter" (see chapter 1 for a good discussion of what that really means). If you've been a student in a mediocre school, or even many that do well on the standardized tests, you'll recognize the wisdom in what he says.

It's a thought provoking book, written in a very conversational style, that really makes you feel like you're talking to Dr. Schank. A valuable parental tool even if you disagree with some or all of the ideas.

Some may accuse him of being anti-teacher, but as someone who's worked with Dr. Schank, I know that he is not. Not at all. He is horrified by much of what goes on in school and, of course, some of the teachers that system creates. To deny that there are bad teachers is ludicrous--this book gives you strategies for recognizing and dealing with those unfortunate few.

While some of what Dr. Schank condemns about schools is valid, he is too ready to dismiss them as irrelevant to children's education. There are creative and committed teachers who do far more than teach "test taking", and his broad condemnation of schools does nothing to encourage their efforts on our children's behalf. He also dismisses literature as an "unnecessary subject" and Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences as a "politically correct view of intelligence", suggesting that reading and math are the only subjects worth learning. This narrow view of what constitutes education and expertise lessens his credibility as an educational "expert".