Customer Reviews

School Sense: How to Help Your Child Succeed in Elementary School

5 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
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My child and I have already begun to reap the benefits from this insightful and accessible book. By following Dr. Chin's recommendations, I've been able to become a better tutor to my son. My improvement in this area has been reflected in his grades and our relationship. Thank you for writing such a helpful book, I owe you one!

This book is largely common sense for parents with some useful insights into the schooling system. Decent overview, but if you already know your child has special needs (is gifted, has learning disabilities, etc.), skip this one and get a book geared for parents of children with your specific needs.

Dr. Chin answers questions such as "What's the least amount of involvement I can do while still looking like an involved parent?" (p. 72) and "My child will not do her homework - I always end up doing it for her. Is this okay?" (p.126)

Some specific criticisms I have of this book are:

The full title of this book is "School Sense: How to Help Your Child Succeed in Elementary School," but I suspect that the author and I define "success" for elementary students in vastly different ways, although Dr. Chin never actually states her definition.

"School Sense" does not back up statements with research and although she describes how to use make a bibliography, does not include one herself!

Dr. Chin is very supportive of homework, but doesn't address what is an appropriate amount. (See NEA: 10-20 minutes per night in the first grade, and an additional 10 minutes per grade level thereafter. Not just for the quicker students - for all students.) Research does not support the usefulness of homework past this amount. Also, Dr. Chin says homework should be top priority. I think many people (even highly academic & "successful" adults) would agree that family comes first. Research also supports the idea that family dinners are much more valuable than school drill & kill exercises.

I highly disagree with Dr. Chin's idea that parents should be tutors. Most are not trained teachers nor do they have the disposition required to tutor. The tutoring dynamic can be really hard the parent-child relationship. Many parents only have a couple of hours a day with their children. Does it really benefit anyone to spend this precious time on homework?

So overall, I don't feel that I learned much from this book and suspect the only reason I even finished reading it was to see if the end was more helpful than the beginning, but it wasn't.

This book is a MUST for parents who want an insiders view on how to help their children through the maze of the school system.

Although written from an inside view of the LAUSD most of the matieral is applicable to any school system anywhere in this country! So-o very helpful, and easily readable !