education-theory

Dr. Glazer's book is thought-provoking, definitive and authoritative, yet describes the cultural and racial divides in the United States with a fatalistic tone.

As a teacher (working outside of the U.S.) I feel this book has helped me to understand how to improve my own teaching skills. When teaching, every educator must consider cultural factors that ideally, determine the manner in which a teacher's class is conducted. As Glazer states, African-American students often fail to excel in academics because there are not enough teachers who project a teaching style these students can identify with, and consequently, African-American students struggle to attain the academic success that comes easily to other races.

Being a teacher of Asian students, I have found that this group excels because it is steeped within most Asian cultures that all authority (parents, teachers, elders) are to be followed without question. This severe upbringing may contribute to higher academic performance and subsequently greater income, but it is not a doctrine that I personally agree with, nor would I ever want my fellow Americans to be inflicted with an imposed order so oppressive and unfair.

After reading this book, it is painfully clear that America's war on racism has a long, long way to go. Lamentably, Glazer's solutions to racial prejudice and segregation are marked with too much of a penchant for uncertainty, a tone of fatalism and touch grey area that could be his trademark. While refusing to state that the solution indeed lies within the government's role of drafting progressive policies and enforcing racial quotas, or even by proposing advances in civil rights and integration, Glazer instead professes an almost naive belief that segregation (in public schools and in America's reidential neighborhoods) is a problem that can be solved by individuals by their own choosing. He admits that such change would be slow, while his writing exudes a lack of faith in the government that must trouble any reader who is to the left of Colin Powell.

Dr. Glazer has crafted a near-masterpiece in sociology/education, but I also believe that the Harvard professor very easily could have been one of the swing voters duped by then-Texas Governor George W. Bush's compassionate conservativism campaign in 2000.

Individuals can do right by practicing integration and embracing cultures different from their own, yet it is an insurmountable task for every minority group, race and ethnicity to maintain and celebrate their own distinctiveness and authenticity without fear of coercion to assimilate or conform to the majority, unless the United States government steps up the pace on the lagging Civil Rights movement and passes new laws that criminalize every form of discrimination in all corners of American life.

This is a very thoughtful book on the development of multiculturalism and the issues that arise from it. The focus is on education, where the topic of multiculturalism is most apparent, and Glazer explains what multiculturalism is about, and what the arguments for and against it are. He is especially concerned about "civic harmony" and whether multiculturalism highlights differences between people at the expense of defending the view that America is a country that has been trying to move towards inclusion. He goes on to attack what he sees as the excesses of the multiculturalist movement in showing the absurd emphasis on topics in history that are insignificant or false.

It takes a few chapters before the book develops its central theme. At this point, it begins to discuss identity, diversity, and the possibility of cooperation and equality. Glazer's argument is that multiculturalism is essentially a black phenomenon, and that it has gained momentum because America has been unable to assimilate blacks in the way that it has done so with European immigrants, Asians, and Hispanics. The reason for this, he maintains, is that blacks have a different history than immigrants, and a reaction to prolonged inequality had to result.

Many people will disagree with Glazer's views. But fortunately for you, it is very evident where he stands, and he is candid in displaying what he believes. Regardless of whether you agree with him, this book contains a good deal of information about the history of multiculturalism that anyone interested can benefit from. Indeed, multiculturalism is here to stay, and we should all know what it's about. Here's one educated point of view that is, if not always agreeable, very temperate and reasonable.

Mr Glazer has been on the frontline for a long time, as far back as the 1960's when he wrote 'Beyond the Melting Pot' except that back then we talked about the need for 'area studies'. It seems to me that the battle seems to have taken it's toll on Mr Glazer. Here he writes with a fatalistic, almost disillusioned approach; wistful in that he "feels warmly attached to the old America" and yet resigned to the fact that 'We are all Multiculturalists Now'.

The book is not a critique of multiculturalism because he allows some of the more egregious examples of it's extremes to go without comment, reporting them as if in acceptance of their permanence. Nor is the book an endorsement; his statement that "multiculturalism in education ...has, in a word, won" is a simple remark, presented without enthusiasm or rancor, but with fatalism. This switch from optimism of earlier days to a more pessimistic outlook today, comes through in how surprised he is that "we can disagree on what seems to me to be simple truths," and in the emergence of "a hard institutionalization of differences." It's unfortunate that Mr Glazer focused on the signs and symptoms of multicultural malaise in his early chapters because it obscures his most profound point. One that although unpleasant, is a truth, and if widely accepted as a starting point, would go a long way to soften some of those hard positions and allow debate to return in place of vitriol. Glazer, on the African-American condition says "where the community of descent defines an inescapable community of fate, where knowledge and moral values are indeed grounded in blood and history...[multiculturalism]...is the price America is paying for it's inability or unwillingness to incorporate into it's society African-Americans, in the same way and to the same degree it has incorporated so many groups." A great synopsis of what Orlando Patterson calls 'the Ordeal of Integration'. If this recognition is all that multiculturalism demands at it's most basic level then we do not have to cater to it's extremes. There are in fact encouraging signs that many students of the subject are demanding mid-course corrections. I think that Mr Glazer's book is needlessly pessimistic and that there will emerge, again, a proper discourse on the subject. Sane, rational and compassionate voices such as his are still very much in need and it would be a shame if years 'in the trenches' were to take it's toll and quieten him.

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nurse' s role teaching proces

If you are a college educated American and underemployed (i.e. working at a job that does not utilise your specific degree, or ANY degree) then you are far from alone. Over half of all college graduates are in the same boat. This figure is even higher for liberal arts and sciences graduates. You did nothing "wrong"- the economy just hasn't been able to generate enough good jobs since the '60's.

A big part of the problem was the high level decision to move manufacturing jobs out of the country. This meant the loss of tens of millions of mid-level management jobs that should have gone to college graduates. The plan in the 60's was for American industry to modernise and automate (and train workers) to overcome low-wage foriegn competition. However, instead of following this government endorsed long-range plan, most manufacturers simply moved their manufacturing off shore to utilise the cheaper labor. This was cheaper and easier than developing efficient high-tech facilities in the U.S.

Secondly, there was a complete disconnect between the needs of industry, and the numbers and type of training in the colleges and universities. For the most part business and higher education mistrusted each other and excluded each other from each other's decision making. This resulted in millions of college grads whose training bore no resemblance to the actual practical needs of industry. Nor were most graduates trained to think in terms of starting their own businesses- it was indoctrinated into them that they would naturally work for large corporations that would "look after" their career development.

So cheer up if you could never found a job that matched your training. It wasn't your fault. It was a failure of "economic democracy."

its a good book, opens yourself on the world that is declinning in most aspects, and awares us of solutions to solve unemployment by changing society as a whole. Interseting reading.

This book has helped me while preparing for next year. I will be first year theology teacher, and focusing on morality. It has been a great stepping stone!

This book, which is part of the excellent series in Practical Theology edited by Don Browning and James Fowler et al, "aims at contributing to a practical-theological theory of moral education by striving to integrate empirically descriptive insights on the one side and critically constructive insights from philosophical and theological ethics on the other."

After an introductory chapter which lays out the author's framework and approach to understanding moral education (based on an interactionist standpoint - describing, analysing and explaining human functioning by looking at the interaction between the individual and his environment), the book looks at seven major modes of moral education, each in its own chapter:

- Discipline
- Socialization (these two are informal modes)

- Transmission (through formal moral education)
- Development (Fowler, Kohlberg, etc)
- Clarification (the values clarification movement)

- Emotional formation
- Education for character

In each, the author scrupulously lays out an overview of the major approaches first, even if he states that he will be focusing on one only. So in the chapter on Emotional Formation, he spends time briefly reviewing traditional emotion theories, from Aquinas through phenomenological approaches to cognitive behaviorism, before settling on the cognitive interaction theory of emotions as the foundation for the rest of the chapter. As promised, there is a rich mix of empiricial research findings with provocative ideas from philosophers from Plato to Ricouer. The writing is at all times clear and accessible (I am a layman in this area).

The last chapter weaves together a retrieval of classical theories of character with a narrative approach to a dynamic understanding of character, and was worth the price of the book alone. Highly recommended for anyone interested in psychology, theology and philosophy!

"Most of the essays in "How to Be Human Though an Economist" were published originally in Deirdre McClosky's regular column in the "Eastern Economic Journal." The material is sophisticated and serious but not technical, and many noneconomists will be able to follow along with difficulty. In a short review, it is impossible to summarize all the essays. In general, the book has to do with the economics profession - what McClosky thinks is wrong with it and how to fix it. Much of the material will be familiar to anyone who has read McClosky's earlier books - "The Rhetoric of Economists" (1985), "The Writing of Economics" (1986), and "The Vices of Economists; The Virtues of the Bourgeoisie" (1997). The essays are grouped loosely around basic suggestions that sounds like those in the latest self-help book: be yourself, be brave, be ethical, write better, read more."

"A large section of the book is devoted to McClosky's on-going and largely futile war on "statistical significance." McClosky is not the only critic of how empirical statistical research is conducted, but she is certainly the most vocal one. Every economist who has ever estimated a regression equation should read these essays."

-From "The Independent Review," Fall 2002

This book is a collection of short articles published previously, all for the generalist economist. McCloskey skewers mainstream economics for its insular habits, woeful statistical techniques, and inability to change. I found all of the essays provocative. The style is chatty and conversational, and as McCloskey has interacted with many of the world's leading economists and Nobel laureates, it makes a great read. Highly recommended.

I was impressed with the depth of love and dedication Caroline Pratt expressed as she retold her lifes story. It was an easy heartfelt read.

Please buy this book so that my employer, City & Country School, can make some money and I can get a raise!

Gates' commentary in this work is insightful without coming across as pretentious or apologetic. Surprisingly, Gates has written a book about race without injecting any invective or peppering it with position papers for how things ought to be, as many political figures would and as Gates himself has done on talk and panel shows. Gates does illuminate the history of black figures in literature and their achievements and accomplishments which may tend to steer this work toward a literary criticism and away from a criticism more appropriate for ethnic studies or black studies. All in all, Gates is a proper steward of black culture: he offers it to the world without any strings.

This is Gates, a Harvard black scholar, opining about multiculturalism debates in the early 90s. It said some useful stuff which may seem a little dated now. For example, he asks why can't all campuses be like Berkeley where there is no racial majority? Well, that question is totally moot post-Proposition 209. As all Harvard black scholars have become recently controversial, this book will be a good intro book for lay readers to see what the controversy is all about. This book is written in a simple fashion that any person should be able to understand. Do not sleep, however! Gates has written many articles and books that only elite readers could understand. Do not believe the lies of the new Harvard president.

Karen Andes has some great ideas in A Woman's Book of Power. The dance exercises and visualization techniques are superb. Movements are broken down in flowery right-brain and clinical left-brain fashions, which work well independently or in tandem. I have already been using some of her techniques in my own dance and fitness classes, and the students love it.

However, the exercises are only part of the book. The rest of the book appears to preach woman power. As an equalitarian, I find the language of these sections exclusionary. The book is written specifically with women in mind as an audience, but the materials within are of equal validity for men and children. I'm not sure why she labels right-brain thinking as feminine and left-brain thinking as male, but this seems to be the thesis on which this book is based. When Karen Andes waxes philosophical about the "feminine" shapes of circles, spirals, and waves, she falls into the same trap as Freud with his phallic imagery. Even Freud was credited as saying, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Andes notes, "Young women seem instinctively drawn to a tribal way of life. They dress alike, travel in packs, love adornment and ceremony." Somehow, she seems to be overlooking how young men tend to act in the same way, with their similar clothing, tastes in music, and team sports.

When she laments "Would male architects design building not only in blueprints but also with a sensitivity to the ground the building sit on, the curves in a hillside, the angles of then sun?", she ignores visionary architects like Frank Lloyd Wright.

Similar false conclusions are made when she writes, "People will ask, 'What's this Goddess thing? It sounds so trendy.' The answer is simple. No one ever asks if God is a trend." As a secular humanist, skeptic, and agnostic, I beg to differ....

I could nit-pick other details like this for quite a while, but it wouldn't serve much of a purpose. If you are the sort of person who likes to read about the aggrandizement of feel-good femininity, you will most likely enjoy the book. Karen has a lucid, easy-to-follow writing style. If you're a more "masculine" (read, left-brain) thinker, you will enjoy the exercise breakdowns. And yes, men can glean practical information from them, too.

Every woman should read this book, Karen is entertaining and makes exercise fun. She addresses the true feelings of women and their bodies. Dance has never been so fun

Mcgrath and Spear do a decent job of summarizing what they feel are the problems of the community college. Although they argue their point in a concise manner and do an excellent jo at it, they sometimes seem to expect you to take them at their word. The problems they cite are very real. People who study community colleges will have little trouble seeing their points, it would still be refreshing to place the problems in community colleges in some sort of historical context. I would advise, however, that anyone who studies community colleges or works in one have this volume in their personal library.

Kirchman makes some pretty heavy claims, but by and large, the book lives up to them.
Aspirations is not an easy read, but it's well worth the effort. The author outlines, among other things, an empirical basis for psychology, how popular psychology is an emerging science of ethics, and how our qualities of character have a neurological basis.
Apparently, his theory of deduction is being applied in a software company he is involved with.
Overall, this book is innovative and is a must read for someone looking for answers and self-understanding.