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The enigma of education

Qualification: The enigma of education
Author: Bruce Deitrick Price
Publisher: Word-Wise Publishing
ISBN: 1-4392-3035-8
ISBN-13: 978-1439230350

The enigma of education is a book of essays related to the educational system of the United States. The question Price asks is: What happened to American education? Price proclaims: “The simultaneous decline of American education and the language used by American educators is a historical fact.” Over the years, I have done some research on this topic, in particular by editing and reviewing college papers. I found this book very interesting and I agree with much of what Price says.

The main thrust of Price’s essays has to do with the failure of our teaching methods to actually teach children to read. Explain the difference between teaching children to read using the whole word strategy and phonetics, favoring phonetics. According to Price, “When we examine education throughout the 20th century, we see a bewildering array of unproductive ideas. But no failure is as primal and destructive as the inability of American public schools to teach reading, the only essential skill.”

Through his essays, Price also addresses the subjects of mathematics, history, science, and art. Furthermore, it provides a history of the American educational system along with its downward turn by referring to it as the “brutalization” of America. From John Dewey to Maria Montessori, Rudolf Flesch, and Gilbert Highet, Price explains their philosophies and the effects on the educational system in this country. He concludes, specifically regarding Dewey and his followers, “Make no mistake, this was a secret conspiracy.”

Along with this, Price makes an excellent point that I have always disagreed with: Children need to memorize facts and figures even if they can look up the answers, whether in a book or online. I always believed that as long as children are taught where and how to look for answers, there is no need for state tests that cause stress for many of our children from fourth grade onward. His comment on this kind of theorizing is, “But will they? No, people usually get by with what they really know in their heads.” I tend to agree with this point, although I still feel that too much emphasis is placed on state testing.

The enigma of education it is full of information and history pertaining to the American educational system. Through some of his essay titles, it’s easy to see that Price has a sense of humor: Jay Leno: Educator of the Year; Phooey on John Dewey; and educators are best understood as “engineers of ignorance.”

It is important to mention that Price is not launching these blows related to the ineffectiveness of the school system at teachers in the trenches. It is intended for those who control the creation and application of inappropriate teaching strategies. In Price’s words, “When I talk about ‘educators’, I never mean teachers. I mean that small group of managers at the top, with PhDs, who effectively control the public schools.”

A final quote from this book that I especially liked: “… Another famous government report, A Nation at Risk (1983) concluded that our public schools appear to have been created by an enemy power. Exactly. An enemy who would love the Americans read weakly and count incorrectly. “

About the Author: Bruce Deitrick Price is a novelist, painter, poet, and educational activist. He graduated from Norfolk Academy and Princeton (with honors in English literature). Throughout his career, Price wrote on education. Aside from the arts, her main passion is Enhance-Education.org. Price is a member of PEN and Mensa.

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