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49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
entertaining but idiosyncratic anti-school screed, August 29, 2002
This review is from: Coloring Outside the Lines (Paperback)
Roger Schank hates America's schools, and makes no bones about it. He criticizes attitudes, procedures and policies that were put in place in order to supply unimaginative and obedient drones to industry, and tells parents that if they're able they should homeschool, but if they're unable they should work hard to counteract the destructive effects of a school system that crushes imagination, original thinking and the love of learning. Schank, a pioneer in cognitive psychology and computer learning, introduces the concepts of dynamic memory, case-based reasoning and scripts, and plays up the importance of computer simulations, role play and field trips. He draws heavily -- almost narcissistically -- on examples from his own children and parenting experiences, sometimes detracting from their utility or universality. For instance, he says parents and teenagers should take walks and long bus rides so they can converse. Huh? The author relates the story of how he and his teenage daughter, given the time and isolation of these activities, achieved better communication. What about a car trip? Plane? Blimp? Camping? He thinks kids should run for office, participate in sports and go to summer camp, whether or not they want to. Sometimes he makes the case, but again his examples and reasoning are so self-centered that one wonders how generalizable they are. The author posits that most students do not need to be taught math or literature, but do need history and science that is limited to nutrition, health and reproduction. Here the author does a fine job of forcing you to re-evaluate your assumptions about education, but I didn't always agree with his conclusions. He defines the six traits of smarter kids as verbal proficiency, creativity, analytical ability, gumption, ambition and inquisitiveness, and devotes a chapter to each. He advises parents to expect an "A" only in a student's favorite subject and passing grades in all others, defending their children from teachers who are out to squash their spirit. He dislikes television, encourages literacy as soon as possible, defines learning as expectation failure, and believes experimentation is self-regulating. As you can see, the author is opinionated and a bit eccentric, though I have to say I agree with many of his criticisms and more than a few of his solutions. I do take umbrage at his peevish dismissal of Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences as being too politically correct, making everyone "smart at something" -- as if it's any more bizarre than 'Take Your Teen on a Greyhound Bus' day. Special chapters are included on the benefits of sports; computer-based learning, including how to evaluate software; and the relative benefits and perils of public schools, private schools and homeschooling as well as the difference between research-oriented universities and smaller liberal arts colleges. I thought these special chapters were especially useful. A mixed bag but overall a coherent system of helping oversee and supplement the education of your child(ren).
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Think you've got an open mind?, July 26, 2003
This review is from: Coloring Outside the Lines (Paperback)
Think you really know what's best for your kids? Read this book. It certainly isn't the be-all and end-all of wisdom on how we should educate our children, but it's the best work on the subject I've seen yet. To read it, though, you have to put aside everything you ever automatically "knew" about school (for example, that it's a good thing) and really THINK about it. What is the purpose of teaching higher math to a child with no aptitude for it and no chance of using it in her career? Why do teachers always insist that children sit quietly and never speak out of turn? Why do parents assume that school will prepare their child for life in the real world? Roger Schank doesn't accuse teachers of trying to squelch children's interests or administrators of being bad people, but he does point out that the way the school system teaches is completely outdated and unintentionally destroys children's eagerness and passion for learning. To raise a truly intelligent child, Schank says, parents must take charge personally. They must work to undue the damage school does to a child, and to instill positive character traits in a child that will help him develop true intelligence: verbal ability, analytical ability, gumption, inquisitiveness, creativity, and ambition. There are simple (and not-so-simple) ways parents can do this, and Schank dedicates his book to telling us how we can help our children and also WHY we should take charge. He stresses that it isn't easy being a parent and it's even harder parenting a "smarter kid" -- but the goal is a child who knows who she is and finds herself as an adult in a happy and successful situation, doing something she loves and excells at. Isn't that a worthy ambition? Altogether, COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES is an eye-opening look at education in our country and the future of our kids -- well worth the time to read and put into practice.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
On the right track, but the wrong train, July 19, 2004
This review is from: Coloring Outside the Lines (Paperback)
I alternately love & hate this book. Schank is into linguistics, computer science & artificial intelligence & in order to study how computers learn, he studied how humans learn. He is currently the founder and director of Northwestern University's Institute for the Learning Sciences.
I don't care for his writing style. Although he knows a lot of the concrete research, he puts it aside in order to tell us what worked with his two children. It comes off as narrow-sighted and arrogant. He extrapolates from "what works for my two children" to "this is what everyone should do". At the same time, I agree with most of what he believes about natural learning.
My biggest complaint with him is that the entire book is set up to explain how damaging schools are to children and how parents can undo that damage with the little time they have at home with their children. He constantly and almost-wholly bashes schools, teachers, curriculum, etc., but explicitly dismisses homeschooling as an extreme option. He has the attitude that "school was damaging to my children, but I did a, b, and c, and they survived intact, so you should, too." One of the tactics he used to get better services for his children (a change in teacher, for example) was to throw around his professional clout. He needs to step out of his isolated academic environment to hear stories from all the parents who *try and try and try* to get services for their children and don't get results because they lack that clout....or inner city or rural parents who don't *have* choices....or parents of children with learning disabilities. I kept thinking how delusional he is to think that parents can change the system--even for their one child. Maybe 30-40 years ago in small suburban districts, but not anymore.
Mostly, I kept thinking how ridiculous it was to fight the system that bashes kids into compliance and submission when it's so much easier to just step out of that system and nurture learning (via his good suggestions) 24 hours a day via homeschooling. All the time he spent repairing damage that school does wouldn't be necessary if they weren't in that system in the first place.
If I put aside how bizarre his basic premise was (that a parent's job is to heal school damage over and over and over again), then his basic ideas about how to nurture learning are pretty good. My one annoyance with this part of his philosophy is that I think he still sees education as something you do *TO* a child vs. something that happens naturally (which he also acknowledges). He gives the example of manipulating their bedtime so they're forced to have some boredom to deal with creatively.
I think Schank's on the right track, but the wrong train. Schools are hopelessly messed up--fogettaboutit and move on. Very interesting, book, though, and I think that for parents just considering the issue of school for their little ones, it would be very helpful--if for no other reason than to encourage them not to put their children into that harmful system in the first place.
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