This summer, each member of the Berkshire Country Day School faculty chose to read one book (from the following list of eight books) for future discussion with other colleagues.
The twenty-first century is a world in constant change. In A New Culture of Learning, Doug Thomas and John Seely Brown pursue an understanding of how the forces of change, and emerging waves of interest associated with these forces, inspire and invite us to imagine a future of learning that is as powerful as it is optimistic. Typically, when we think of culture, we think of an existing, stable entity that changes and evolves over long periods of time. In A New Culture, Thomas and Brown explore a second sense of culture, one that responds to its surroundings organically. It not only adapts, it integrates change into its process as one of its environmental variables.
With visionary flare, Pink argues that business and everyday life will soon be dominated by right-brain thinkers. He identifies the roots and implications of transitioning from a society dominated by left-brain thinkers into something entirely different—although at times, he seems to be exhorting rather than observing the trend. As a narrator, Pink delivers in a well executed manner, with occasional hints of enthusiasm. He maintains a steady voice that is well suited for a business-oriented text, and his crisp pronunciation and consistent pace keeps listeners engaged and at ease. Updated with new material.
Charney provides evidence that children can learn to care for one another while becoming culturally literate. She includes moving stories told by wise teachers. Wise, wonderful and practical. –Nel Noddings, Professor of Child Education, Teachers College. Author of Caring. Expanding on her ideas in Teaching Children to Care, Charney invites six elementary school teachers to study problems from their classrooms concerning the social curriculum. She asks them to share their questions, their struggles and their triumphs over the course of a school year.
David Perkins, a noted authority on teaching and learning and co-director of Harvard’s Project Zero, introduces a practical and research-based framework for teaching. He describes how teaching any subject at any level can be made more effective if students are introduced to the “whole game,” rather than isolated pieces of a discipline. Perkins explains how learning academic subjects should be approached like learning baseball or any game, and he demonstrates this with seven principles for making learning whole: from making the game worth playing (emphasizing the importance of motivation to sustained learning), to working on the hard parts (the importance of thoughtful practice), to learning how to learn (developing self-managed learners).
Psychologist, author and Harvard professor Gardner (Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons) has put together a thought-provoking, visionary attempt to delineate the kinds of mental abilities (“minds”) that will be critical to success in a 21st century landscape of accelerating change and information overload. Gardner’s five minds-disciplined, synthesizing, creating, respectful and ethical-are not personality types, but ways of thinking available to anyone who invests the time and effort to cultivate them: “how we should use our minds.” In presenting his “values enterprise,” Gardner uses a variety of explanatory models, from developmental psychology to group dynamics, demonstrating their utility not just for individual development, but for tangible success in a full range of human endeavors, including education, business, science, art, politics and engineering.
This book presents an innovative, comprehensive strategy for evolving education to meet the needs of 21st century society. 21st Century Skills is full of interesting examples illustrating both what work will look like in the years ahead and how thoughtful educators are preparing children to thrive in tomorrow’s workplaces. The richness of the examples reflects the authors’ extensive knowledge of how work is changing in the nation’s most innovative firms and their deep involvement in the efforts to improve America ’s schools.
In Responsibility in the Classroom Amy Lew and Betty Lou Bettner present a theoretical construct and practical, accessible strategies and suggestions for developing caring, respectful relationships between teachers and students and among students, and a cooperative classroom community. They provide a framework to help teachers understand children’s behavior and develop strategies for achieving the Crucial Cs: feeling connected, capable, knowing that you count, and developing courage…Their approach is an optimistic one…Developing the Crucial Cs becomes a guiding principle in creating a sense of community in the classroom.
The authors are all practicing clinical psychologists, and one is a former Olympic athlete. Between them, they have seen all the good and bad outcomes of sports participation by children and adolescents. Based on their experiences, and interviews with athletes, parents, coaches, and teachers, they offer a look at development from age one to early adulthood and how athletics can help or hinder that development. Case studies illustrate the stress of crunch moments in games, high emotions of coaches and parents (on occasion ending in violence), children who lose the sense of fun in sports when competition becomes overwhelming, and children who underperform to maintain friendships. Separate chapters examine the influence of coaches, eating disorders and steroid use, and overweight children. Throughout, at whatever the children’s age or skill level, the authors advise parents to encourage their children and remain positive. To prevent abuses by coaches, fans, or even other parents, the authors advise parents: know yourself, know your child, and know the environment.
