These titles are books that private school teachers and administrators have shared with each other on various lists and groups. One or two are quick reads. Most are pretty meaty. They all deserve a place in your collection. Parents need to read many of these books in order to understand what really goes on in the classroom.
Adios, Barbie: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity (Live Girls)
By Ophira Edut (Editor), Rebecca Walker ISBN: 1580050166 "In more than 20 candid and humorous essays, a diverse group of women explore how they have chosen to ignore, subvert, or redefine the standard of beauty. These women break down modern culture's feminine ideal and reinvent it for themselves."
After Long Silence
By Helen Fremont. ISBN: 0385333706 "In her mid-30s Helen Fremont discovered that, although she had been raised in the Midwest as a Catholic, she was, in fact, the daughter of Polish Jews whose families had been exterminated in the Holocaust."
The Age of American Unreason
By Susan Jacoby ISBN: 9780375423741 "A scathing, witty indictment of American modern-day culture examines the current disdain for logic and evidence fostered by the mass media, religious fundamentalism, poor public education, a lack of fair-minded intellectuals, and a lazy, credulous public, condemning our addiction to infotainment, from TV to the Web, and assessing its repercussions for the country as a whole."
A Separate Peace
by John Knowles ISBN: 0743253973
"At a New England boarding school during World War II, a group of boys discovers the depths of human nature among themselves, and the evil that even the most innocent is capable of."
Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child
by Elva Trevino Hart. ISBN: 0927534819
"A vividly told autobiographical account of the life of a child growing up in a family of migrant farm workers."
Blueprint for a Green School (Scholastic Leadership Policy Research)
By Jayni Chase ISBN: 9780590498302
"After reading this book, you'll never look at schools in quite the same way again. This hefty tome probes every corner of the campus...to assess its potential for pollution. The picture is pretty scary....Thankfully, the 'Blueprint' is also loaded with alternatives and actions one can take to alleviate the noxious threats."
Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood
by Bell Hooks ISBN: 0805055126
"Feminist scholar Bell Hooks (Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism) has long raised uncomfortable questions about race, gender, and class."
Boys Will Be Men: Masculinity in Troubled Times
By Richard Hawley ISBN: 0839711948
The author of The Headmaster's Papers delivers his view of what it means to be a man.
The Child and the Machine: How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk
by Alison Armstrong, Charles Casement. ISBN: 1589040058
"Armstrong and Casement thoughtfully consider the use of computers to teach children. They explore theories of how children learn and their application to the hottest trend in education, computer literacy."
The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, Revised Edition
by Alice Miller, Ruth Ward. ISBN: 0465016901
"Now revised and updated to reflect the author's new insights, this modern classic explains why many of the most successful children and adults are plagued by feelings of emptiness and alienation--and tells how to break the cycle."
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!
by Lynne Truss ISBN: 0399244913
"Who cares about the difference between "its" and "it's" or "whose" and "who's"? To the shock of everyone--including the author--apparently a lot of people do: Lynne Truss's lively look at the perils of punctuation took the UK by storm."
ENDANGERED MINDS: Why Children Dont Think And What We Can Do About It
by Jane M. Healy ISBN: 067174920X
"Dr. Healy examines the decline in schools and offers concrete advice for improving our students' endangered minds. A fascinating assessment which argues that children in today's fast-paced electronic world use their brains differently than did children in past generations."
The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning
by Etta Kralovec, John Buell ISBN: 0807042196
"Linking homework with school reform for the first time, The End of Homework convincingly reveals the promise of a society that recognizes the necessity of work without forgetting the significance of leisure."
Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna
by Joseph Lemasolai-Lekuton and Herman Viola ISBN: 0792251253
"Lekuton grew up in Kenya's poorest tribe, herding cows and playing in trees and hyena holes before he entered a missionary boarding school and went to college in the U.S. Now he teaches in Virginia, but he has never lost his Maasai roots, and he returns home to help his people several months a year."
Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds--for Better and Worse
by Jane M. Healy. ISBN: 0684831368
"Longtime educator and administrator Healy is actually a fan of computers. But she is dismayed that so many people in and out of education hold the almost religious conviction that computers in classrooms equal better learning experiences."
The Family Heart: A Memoir of When Our Son Came Out
by Robb Forman Dew ISBN: 0345394089
"Novelist Dew's clean, elegant prose traces the denial, disbelief, grief, and rage at the inequities of society she and her liberal, educated husband, Charles, experienced when their elder son told them he was gay."
Field Guide to the American Teenager: A Parent's Companion
by Joseph Di Prisco et al. ISBN: 0738205192
"Seasoned educators Riera and Di Prisco cover many of the heavy-hitting topics that teens face, including drinking and driving, sexual issues, eating disorders, decision-making, violence and drugs."
Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America
by Geoffrey Canada ISBN: 0807004235
"Violence in America is blended with autobiography in a title that charts the author's own coming of age in a violent South Bronx society and the present realities of gang violence and life in the area.
e Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America by Geoffrey Canada ISBN: 0807004235
"Violence in America is blended with autobiography in a title which charts the author's own coming of age in a violent South Bronx society and the present realities of gang violence and life in the area."
The Good High School: Portraits of Character and Culture
by Sara Lawrence Lightfoot ISBN: 0465026966
"Lightfoot offers a penetrable look inside high schools while exploring the inherent goodness of schools."
Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation
by Don Tapscott. ISBN: 0071347984
"Takes a sociological approach to the intersection of the largest generation in history and the Internet."
Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life
by Robert Neelly Bellah (Editor) ISBN: 0520205685
"Habits of the Heart is required reading for anyone who wants to understand how religion contributes to and detracts from America's common good."
Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace
by Janet Horowitz Murray. ISBN: 0262631873
The Headmaster: Frank L. Boyden of Deerfield
by Johnny McPhee ISBN 0374514968
"Starting in 1902 at a country school that had an enrollment of fourteen, Frank Boyden built an academy that has long since taken its place on a level with Andover and Exeter. Boyden, who died in 1972, was the school's headmaster for sixty-six years. John McPhee portrays a remarkable man 'at the near end of a skein of magnanimous despots who…created enduring schools through their own individual energies, maintained them under their own absolute rule, and left them forever imprinted with their own personalities.'"
How the Mind Works
by Steven Pinker ISBN: 0393318486
"Wonderful survey of modern brain science, brilliant and readable."
The Human Side of School Change: Reform, Resistance, and the Real-Life Problems of Innovation (Jossey Bass Education Series)
by Robert Evans ISBN: 0787903183
"The Human Side of School Change provides practical advice on problem solving, communication, and staff motivation."
May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr
by Michael Eric Dyson. ISBN: 068483037X
"Provocative preacher-teacher Michael Eric Dyson, known for his hip-hop-style delivery and encyclopedic intellectual powers, heroically tries to update and examine the true legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. for a glib Generation-X world."
In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development
by Carol Gilligan ISBN: 0674445449
"Carol Gilligan believes that psychology has persistently and systematically misunderstood women. Repeatedly, developmental theories have been built on observations of men's lives. Here, Gilligan attempts to correct psychology's misperceptions and refocus its view of female personality. The result reshapes our understanding of human experience."
In the Deep Heart's Core
by Michael Johnston ISBN: 080211721X
"In the Deep Heart's Core is the story of one young man's experience in the TFA program -- and the story of how a new generation is reaching out to give hope to the students society has forgotten."
Kinship: A Family's Journey in Africa and America
by Philippe E. Wamba ISBN: 0452278929
"Wamba, born of an African father and a North American mother, offers a fascinating look at the cultural differences and similarities between Africans and Americans of African descent."
The Kindergarten Wars: The Battle to Get into America's Best Private Schools
By Alan Eisenstock ISBN: 9780446577748
"An eye-opening look inside the private school application process offers expert advice from teachers, educational consultants, admissions directors, school heads, and tutors to reveal who gets into a private school and why, whether or not the right kindergarten helps a child get into the right college, and more."
Looking Ahead: Independent School Issues and Answers
By Patrick Bassett & Louis M. Crosier ISBN: 1890765104
"From the fundamentals of hiring faculty to the adept management of complex social issues – gender bias in math class, meeting the needs of gay and lesbian students, discipline – Bassett and Crosier’s book stimulates important discussion by profiling model programs and suggesting paths toward improvement."
Meeting at the Crossroads: Womens Psychology and Girls Development
by Carol Gilligan, Lyn Mikel Brown ISBN: 0674564642
"During the course of five years, the authors interviewed 100 girls, listening on several defined levels to gain understanding of what happens as identity develops during adolescence."
Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia
by Emily Toth ISBN: 9780812215663
Old Dogs and Children: A Novel
by Robert Inman ISBN: 0316419141
"Bright Birdsong, widow and mother of prominent politicians, relives the challenges and choices, frustrations and joys, of small-town life in the South. A masterpiece of old-fashioned storytelling that vividly evokes one woman's remarkable life and her struggle to make peace with the past."
Paper Daughter: A Memoir
by M. Elaine Mar ISBN: 0060930527
"Mar grew up in two different worlds--that of her strict Chinese parents and the unfamiliar and strange American culture at school. Whereas Elaine's childhood was spent adjusting to a foreign culture, her parents had faced hunger and poverty in China."
Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys
by Daniel J. Kindlon, Michael Thompson ISBN: 0345424573
"Two of the country's leading child psychologists, share what they have learned in more than thirty-five years of combined experience working with boys and their families."
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
by Iris Chang ISBN: 0140277447
"At the 60th anniversary of this terrible event, Iris Chang's research on the Nanking holocaust yields a new and expanded telling of this World War II atrocity and reflects thorough research."
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by Mary Bray Pipher ISBN: 0345392825
"With sympathy and focus she cites case histories to illustrate the struggles required of adolescent girls to maintain a sense of themselves...Pipher offers concrete suggestions for ways by which girls can build and maintain a strong sense of self."
School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School
by Edward Humes. ISBN: 0156030071
"The pressure to succeed in our nation's most competitive public high schools is often crushing. Striving to understand this insular world, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes spent a year at California's Whitney High, a school so renowned that parents move across town-and across the world-hoping to enroll their children."
The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards"
by Alfie Kohn ISBN: 0395940397
"Teacher-turned-writer Alfie Kohn takes on traditional-education giants like E.D. Hirsch, along with practically every state government 'raising the bar' and toughening standards, in this attack on the back-to-basics movement."
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World
by David Abram. ISBN: 0679776397
"This is a landmark book. Scholars will doubtless recognize its brilliance, but they may overlook the most important part of Dave Abram's achievement: he has written the best instruction manual yet for becoming fully human."
The Sweeter the Juice: A Family Memoir in Black and White
by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip. ISBN: 0671899333
"A provocative memoir that goes to the heart of our American identity as Haizlip (owner of a public-relations firm), while searching for her mother's family--blacks who passed for whites- -confronts the deeply intertwined but often suppressed tensions between race and skin color."
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
Critically acclaimed book by the president of Harvard University, Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust.: ISBN: 9780375404047
"The author of Mothers of Invention assesses the devastating impact of the enormous carnage of the Civil War on every aspect of American life from a material, political, intellectual, cultural, social, and spiritual perspective, from the logistical challenges of burying the battlefield dead to the evolution of a federal system of national cemeteries."
To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey
by Parker J. Palmer ISBN: 0060664517
"This primer on authentic education explores how mind and heart can work together in the learning process. Moving beyond the bankruptcy of our current model of education, Palmer finds the soul of education in a lifelong cultivation of the wisdom each of us possesses and can share to benefit others."
Understanding by Design
by Grant Wiggins, Jay McTighe ISBN: 0871203138
"This book is excellent reading for teachers, school administrators, and school district managers who are truly interested and concerned with student achievement."
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