A pair of notable new books currently getting a good deal of press seem designed to pique the interest of lawmakers. One offers a unique take on the Legislature’s paramount duty, and the other focuses on foster care in America.
Since about the time “Why Johnny Can’t Read” was published nearly 60 years ago, it seems not a week goes by without another new book on K-12 education. Many if not most are polemics: The Democrats did it. The Republicans are at fault. Blame TV, or the baby boomers, or not enough (or too much) prayer in school, or diversity, or unions, or any of scores of other things. Some make sense, some don’t.
“The Smartest Kids in the World, and How They Got That Way” by New America
Foundation fellow Amanda Ripley looks at America’s education model not by focusing on U.S. schools to see what’s wrong, but by investigating how three other countries (Finland, South Korea, and Poland) are schooling their kids, and what they seem to be doing right – or wrong. It’s an interesting approach that follows three U.S. high-school students who head overseas for a year, one to each country. The results are fascinating and instructive.
Also hot off the press is “To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care.” Author Cris Beam, a foster parent herself as well as a teacher, journalist, and novelist, is winning praise from inside and outside the foster-care community for what the Times called “a triumph of narrative reporting and storytelling, as well as a thorough and nuanced analysis of an American institution deeply in need of reform.”
For a quick overview of both books, including an interview with Beam, you can give a listen to the a recent Inside The New York Times Book Review podcast.
Clearly, these are issues the 2014 Legislature — and legislatures for years to come — will continue to grapple with.