The Season

It pains me to give a bad review of a new author's first book, but I just read part of an unbelievable, poorly researched young adult fiction book. It was Sarah MacLean's The Season, a teenage Regency romance set in 1815 at the start of the London season. The lead female and her two friends, all of whom are just 17 years old, speak like modern teenagers about finding "The One" and wanting love matches with someone who will treat them as equals. Equality as a pressing concern for gentry teenage girls in 1815? Come on! Here's one of the worst quotes I came across:

"True," said Ella. "Men are not nearly as evolved as women are, nor as intelligent, evidently."

So...not only is the author having a swipe at all men, she's oblivious to the fact that the theory of evolution didn't even come into being until after Darwin began his voyaging in 1831. Don't waste your time on this book.

Benny and Omar

Benny and Omar by Eoin Colfer was such a fun book! And if expat life in Africa is like expat life in Asia and South America, this was one of the most accurate depictions of it that I've ever come across. The book even taught me about Irish culture; for instance, now I know the word "eejit", and I have an inkling of what "hurling" is (it's a sport, not a stomach emptying). So, go read this book. Read it to your children, too, if they're eight or older.

Stuffed

I just finished reading the book Stuffed by Hank Cardello last night. It was an interesting read, especially the first part where he covers the economic reasons for why restaurants and packaged food makers make selling choices that are bad for consumer health, inter alia, combo meals, supersizing, and inertia as to ingredient changes. The author is very pessimistic about people's ability to choose to eat healthily, so he advocates in the latter part of his book the practice of "stealth health"--changing out unhealthy ingredients for healthier ones without telling consumers. I can see the merits in such an idea, but I don't agree with what he considers healthier alternatives. For instance, I distrust artificial sweeteners and never use them in my food, and I don't drink diet soda pop; I certainly don't want the food industry sneaking such sweeteners into my food. Also, I don't want to be fed oil that my body won't absorb; I did that once, and I was not pleased with how my body dealt with it. I'd much rather eat moderate amounts of butter, saturated fat that it is. Despite my dislike of "stealth health" as a solution to the obesity epidemic, I still recommend the book--at the least, it should help you have the strength to turn down the combo meal next time you're forced to get your lunch or dinner at a fast food joint.

Artemis Fowl

Thanks to my husband, I'm now reading the Artemis Fowl series. I read the first book a while back but didn't feel then the desire to get the second book. However, that was before I read the graphic novel of the first book, which dh borrowed from the library twice in a row. I'm now happily in the middle of book four, The Opal Deception, and wondering how Artemis is going to get out of this fix. Artemis Fowl reminds me of the The Great Brain. They both have big brains and little hearts, but slowly their hearts begin to catch up with their mental powers.

Weapons of Mass Instruction

I just finished reading Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto. Being an advocate of homeschooling as a legal option, I supposed that reading his book might be rather like being a choir member hearing a sermon on the importance of worship. In many ways, it was. I do not feel it wise of our society to force children younger than 7 or 8 and older than 16 to be schooled; those in the former group are often too immature for institutional academics, and many in the latter group are mature enough to make life decisions (that's why nearly every U.S. state and the majority of European countries allow 16-year-olds to marry with parental consent). Also, I value the information Mr. Gatto included about the origins of compulsory schooling and the proven ability of many to succeed in life without being "A" students.

But, here's my big "however" about this book. Mr. Gatto, while pointing out the ineffectiveness of many schools to actually educate, is on a crusade against standardized testing. Why? Doesn't he realize that standardized testing is the only way for those not personally involved with a school to find out to what degree it is successfully producing students who can read and do basic math? We can't just trust that schools are seeing to instruction in these basic skills. (And we just can't do away with all schools, either.) As Mr. Gatto points out on page 197 when discussing the lack of sufficient--despite being legally-mandated--physical exercise in New York City schools,

96 percent of all schools in New York City break the law with impunity in a matter threatening the health of the students. What makes it even more ominous is that school officials are known far and wide for lacking independent judgment and courage in the face of bureaucratic superiors; but something in this particular matter must give them confidence that they won't be held personally liable.

You must face the fact that an outlaw ethic runs throughout institutional schooling. It's well-hidden inside ugly buildings, masked by dull people, mindless drills, and the boring nature of almost everything associated with schools, but make no mistake--under orders from somewhere, this institution is perfectly capable of lying about life-and-death matters, so how much more readily about standardized testing?

I am not against standardized tests per se, and I have no inclination to take part in a "Bartleby Project" campaign against them (I never liked Melville's fictional scrivener; he seemed an empty, purposeless man unworthy of emulation). Standardized tests serve an important function: holding schools accountable for academic instruction. If schools can get away with insufficient P.E. time, then they are certainly capable of not doing any effective academic teaching where no way exists to catch them being delinquent in that basic duty.

For the record, I am against more than one or two days per year being spent taking or even preparing overtly for standardized tests. They should be written well in order to accurately measure proficiency in reading and math and science comprehension, proficiency which should already be being developed by the teachers and curriculum throughout the year. Teachers should have no need to "teach to the test" because the test should be measuring that which they should have been teaching all along.

While I learned much from Weapons of Mass Instruction, I am not enamored of this book in large part because of the author's unwillingness to recognize any value in a moderate amount of standardized testing. I have no philosophical objection to my children being tested as Colorado law requires (first in 3rd grade, then every second year thereafter). I expect the exams to be easy for my children because I will have educated them far above the standard, which is actually quite a low level these days. Any shortcomings they might have in their exam scores, I will take responsibility for and work to remedy, as becomes an adult who has taken charge of a child's education.