Educators Books

..."Thank You, Sister is a nostalgic, yet honest look into the academic and social life of a young Catholic girl in the '60's. Beverly remembers everything I had forgotten. A delightful read.

This was a great refresher of memories from Catholic school that I had filed away for too long! Beverly did a great job of using the details to remind us of the bigger picture --- how fortunate we are to have been educated by people so dedicated, so loving, and so faithful to God. This is an awesome tribute, and a humorous and touching light read. Thank you, BVMs! And thank you, Beverly.

. . .swirling around the Catholic Church today, "Thank you, Sister" is a beautiful and refreshing change.

Neither deep theology, nor modern controversy, "Thank you, Sister" is the loving memoir of a woman who spent 8 years in Catholic grammar school in the late 1950's and early 1960's. The author credits her own loving upbringing to her own eventual decision to become a teacher herself.

There is a lot of evil in the world, and some of it is in the Church itself. This book serves as a powerful reminder that there is -- and ever has been -- far more good than evil, and that good will ultimately triumph.

A heartwarming read.

If ever a book should be required reading for middle-aged, basketball-playing, poetry-writing, underprepared-student-teaching folks, then that book is Themes for English B by J.D. Scrimgeour. As a reader, I happen to fall into that limited demographic, but this book far transcends such a small pool of potential readers.

Scrimgeour's unadorned but note-perfect prose dances through a range of subjects beyond poetry, teaching, and basketball to weave a collection of memoir essays united by the tread of thoughtful reflection on human experience--both his own and the people around him, his students, teachers, family members, friends, and teammates.

This book is highly recommended for readers with an interest in education, poetry, basketball, and life in general.

Scrimgeour writes not just about teaching, but about life. He has grasped the deep truth that what matters in everything -- in reading, teaching, baseball and basketball, choosing a place to live -- is how you connect with other people, and how you affect them. These are simple descriptions of simple, everyday events, but the clarity and honesty of his observations shine through on every page. Very worthwhile.

He says about college teaching what I wish I had said before him, but he says it better. He reminds us of why books matter. Very honest stuff, lyrical and -- at times - funny.

This book is one of those rare gems that, if you're really fortunate, you come across from time to time. I received it as a gift from one of my mentors, Charlie Jones, who had, for some time now, been speaking of Booker T. Washington as one of his heroes. Having only a very surface knowledge of Mr. Washington - knowing that he was born a slave and went on to become founder of the famed Tuskegee Institute - he was a hero of mine, as well. After all, one could only imagine what he had to overcome to have achieved all he did.

However, after reading this book by Pastor Stephen Mansfield, the greatness of Mr. Washington simply came alive for me. He was a man of character, a man of faith, a dreamer and a doer; a man who moved mountains and moved hearts.

He had a plan - he had a dream - for taking his people from a horrible situation and helping them to move up and become successful in every way.

Unfortunately, as the author points out, he was fought every step along the way - often most by those he was trying to help and, in time, and long after he died in 1915, was disparaged by many as simply naïve, foolish, a misguided optimist, betrayer to his people.

Of course, none of this is true. Reading the story of Booker T. Washington in 2007 we can look back in hindsight and see that everything he taught - regarding the importance of character, thrift, knowledge, wisdom, forgiveness, love, persistence, delayed gratification, humility, etc. - is the way to build oneself, one's people and one's nation.

Only now is this man's wisdom and greatness beginning to once again be recognized and embraced. This book should be read by anyone and everyone looking to achieve greatness in their life. Read this book and you'll have the roadmap for doing so.

Booker T. Washington was a wonderful man; a hero. And the author, Pastor Mansfield, did a superb job in telling the story.

P.S. By the way, if you get an opportunity to read the booklet, "Character Building" by Booker T. Washington it will also be WELL worth your time. It's a reprinting of a number of his "Sunday Evening Talks" to his students and faculty members. The advice and wisdom that Mr. Washington shared is simply amazing.

Then Darkness Fled is a celebration of the life of Booker T. Washinghton and tells of a man who dined with heads of state and became the first Afro-American to receive honorary degrees from Harvard and Dartmouth. Chapters survey both his achievements and his life in this lively coverage.

In another sterling volume of the Leaders in Action series, Stephen Mansfield here outlines the life and character of Booker T. Washington. In vivacious voice and moving magniloquence, Mansfield traces Washington's path from slavery to his founding of Tuskegee Institute. He shows the difficulties Washington surpassed in reaching his goals, and the principles that helped him make it. In the words of Washington, "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succed." By this standard, Booker T. Washington was an astonishingly successful man.

Washington wrote his own autobiography, _Up From Slavery_, which must certainly not be neglected. But Mansfield's biography is also a criticial read because he includes facts that the autobiographer was too modest to mention, and he highlights wonderful aspects of Washington's character that humility prevented him from including. This biography doesn't contain the wonderful self-analysis and insight of Booker himself - but it does contain all the benefits of a third person account.

One thing I really appreciated about this book was its terrific analysis of slavery and inter-race reconciliation. Expounding Booker's opinion, Mansfield blames both whites and blacks for the problems that cropped up after the Civil War. Whites needed to repent of their brutal treatment of slaves and actually begin considering blacks more than mere animals; and blacks needed to repent of their spirit of bitterness toward their white enslavers, and begin working hard and leaving no excuse for disrespect of blacks. Too many books on reconciliation have practically advocated bitterness, hatred, and laziness when what is really needed is Washington's outlook of forgiveness and hard work. This book offers relief from such pride.

To wrap up, this is a great biography. Good history, good style, and good content. Buy it.

What a great book! I enjoyed reading this book and finished it in one sitting. I have had the honor of meeting Marco the Magi on a couple of occasions and have found him to be one of the most amazing people I have known. I work at Montserrat College of Art, one block from where Marco and Le Grand David perform and have watched them a couple of times with amazement. Marco has even opened his incredible theater to us and we have had three commencement ceremonies there and a couple of convocations at his other historic theater, the Larcom Theater.

I have always wondered, how on earth did he create something so amazing. Avrom has done a wonderful job of lifting the curtain and enabling the reader to understand Marco's life - and wonderful suprises. I strongly encourage those who have an interest in magic, theater, or leadership to read this book!

Brian Bicknell

Marco the Magi, an inspiration to immigrants everywhere. A book which takes the reader through time and hardship of a young man leaving his motherland with little other than the clothes on his back and to the present successful person he has become through the fruits of his hard work and sweat of his brow.

The reader will come to admire Marco as much as those who know him personally and know of his kind and generous heart.

The author, Avrom Karl Surath is not just an original member of Le Grand David and his own Spectacular Magic Company, but has also been a close personal friend of Marco's for over four decades. It is little wonder that he has been able to capture the true essesnce of this magnificent individual and of his accomplishments from childhood in Cuba to the present time as producer and director of the magic troupe from Beverly Massachusetts.

Through the years the author has had an opportunity to personally meet many of the people he has interviewed for the book and to be witness to many of the reuniting meetings between Marco and those friends he had been separated from for years.

Maria Ibanez
Miami, Florida

The Life of Marco The Magi - Researched and written over many years by Avrom Karl Surath, an original member of Le Grand David and his own Spectacular Magic Company, this book carries you through Marco the Magi's childhood and youth in Cuba up to the present time as producer and director of Beverly's famed magic troupe.

The author's research brought him in contact with members of the Cuban diaspora who were Marco's friends and members of his theater company when they were all beginning their lives in Cuba. The author was present when they rediscovered him in America fifty years later.The book recounts the revolution and the agony of Marco's forced exile. It covers his seven years of doctoral studies and friendship with Abraham Maslow at Brandeis University. It gives new perspectives on his founding of the Le Grand David stage magic ensemble. It shows how the genial magician has incorporated Maslow's principles in the colorful and often surprising life of the magic company over its thirty-year-plus history.

The book includes forewords by John Fisher, Dr. Ricardo Morant (Fierman Professor of Psychology, emeritus at Brandeis), and Luis Puello, a former student in Santa Clara, Cuba. Chapters contain interviews with Cesareo about how he conceived and directed the shows. It also includes interviews with Le Grand David about his role in the productions.

Pages 228 - Soft Bound

Al was my mentor in the 1970's and this is an honest and true representation of the man I knew. There will never be another like him.

Albert Shanker had always been one of my heroes . . . yet until
I read TOUGH LIBERAL by Richard D. Kahlenberg, I had not known
too much about him.

That's no longer the case . . . in fact, this excellent biography even
increased my appreciation of Shanker who once told an interviewer:
* "If I didn't have to make a living, I would have done this as a volunteer."

What he did was head the American Federation of Teachers for
well over 20-25 years . . . by doing so, he helped change the
perception of teachers by having them recognized as professionals:

* A professional receives a liberal-arts education, then specialized
training, and then must pass a rigorous exam before beginning
to practice. She participates in an internship, is guided by mentors,
and participates in reviewing the performance of colleagues. Once these
professional responsibilities are met come the reciprocal set of rights:
greater autonomy and higher compensation. In Shanker's vision,
policies like a rigorous national test, peer review, and career
ladders were not just defensive moves against critics
of public-school teachers, they were prerequisites
to the professionalization of teaching.

TOUGH LIBERAL summarized Shanker's contributions to
education in one of the finest concluding paragraphs that I've
ever read:

* In one lifespan, Albert Shanker helped to create the institution
of collective bargaining for teachers, giving them greater dignity
and voice in how they would be treated. He then used that power
to engage in a series of critical education reforms that proved
instrumental in improving and preserving the institution of public
education. Both accomplishments served the larger goal he cherished
above all others: strengthening American democracy. His failure
to convince fellow liberals to extend their support of democracy more
broadly--to racial policy, international affairs, and their views of the labor
movement--leaves open the question: what might society look like
if we tried?

If you want to learn about Albert Shanker and the labor movement in
this country, read this book . . . it will also make a great gift for any
teacher.

In his film, Sleeper, Woody Allen immortalized Albert Shanker as the madman responsible for blowing up the world. That helped to get Shanker known outside of NY, but clearly it wasn't the real Shanker. In this highly readable and often exhilarating biography of Shanker, Richard Kahlenberg shows that while Shanker, the architect of the modern teacher union movement (and, it turns out, so much more) surely understood power and accumulated it, his only "madness" was to seek to empower the powerless and to hold this nation to the democratic ideals it espoused and he so cherished. Indeed, far from being "mad," Shanker was both intellectually and politically brilliant -- a rare combination -- an idealist with both a shrewd and compassionate understanding of human nature and a pragmatist who nonetheless stood firm on principles, a stance that sometimes incurred the enmity of allies as much as enemies. This was also a man who dealt with the high and mighty, but who in his writing and speaking could take the most complicated ideas and make them accessible to ordinary people without ever dumbing anything down. Had Kahlenberg just written a biography of this complex and far-ranging man, that probably would have been interesting enough. But Kahlenberg goes further and roots Shanker in the major political and cultural struggles over the soul of the Democratic party and the direction of this country. Regardless of one's view of those struggles and their outcomes, Kahlenberg's recounting of them cannot help but make you think of missed opportunities and "what ifs" to this day. Politics, race, education, the meaning and practice of democracy -- a heady and vitally critical brew. And Kahlenberg stirs and blends this pot well through Shanker, his meaty main ingredient.

I recommend this book enthusiastically, for several reasons: First, amid the helter skelter of my own life, I treasure books I can enjoy in segments. Second, I enjoy books which I consider well written, and third, I relish non fiction books that read like imaginative prose but are actually non fiction works. TRAVELS WITH ERNEST meets each of these criteria. Savoring, dipping into this book, is a joy. TRAVELS WITH ERNEST enabled me, a compulsive stay-at-home, to see distant places. For example, as I write it's deep winter in Ohio, 2006, and I'm writing about Laurel and Ernest's ninth soujourn at St. Petersburg Beach, Florida in March 2002. Laurel, an accomplished poet, writes first, revealing her sharp yet lyrical talent for descriptive prose. It's her first trip since 9/11 and she breathes deeply "imagining millions of zaps of the happiness potions that live in the sea, some call them 'negative ions.'" She describes the GulfGate Condos as "color coordinated, swirls of turquoise, shrimp, and shells on the Wall Tex, chair covers, upholstery, pictures, dishes, towels, sheets. I sink into the comfort of the cliche." We're allowed to relish a visit to Evander Preston's jewelry store where Ernest buys Laurel "a pair of gold earrings, flat and smooth with wrinkled edges like the sea." In Ernest's account they revisit the Don Cesar Hotel which used to be a haunt of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Coincicentally, they want to see President George W. Bush and his motorcade drive up to the Don Cesar for a $25,000 a plate fundraiser. As two retired profesors they exchange hilarious wisecracks about the price! They also intend to have lunch in an ice cream parlor which was once named Zelda's, but they have to settle for the new Uncle Andy's. Ernest, who is an aficianado of--indeed, an expert on--F.Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY, describes the scene with accuracy and literary elan. As Laurel puts it, "Ernest can riff." He describes the Don Cesar as "our goal the flamingo pink mirage shimmering up ahead in the Florida heat, gigantic yet fragile looking, a Hansel and Gretel castle that might at any moment dissolve like sherbet into the Gulf of Mexico." Laurel asks Ernest whether he remembers George W. Bush at Yale. This sets Ernest off on a riotous yet highly informative ramble on those Yale days, 1963-71, when Ernest was assistant professor of English there. He recalls "classrooms full of good looking kids who'd rather discuss yachts than Yeats, most of them looking like, oh, clones of the Kingston Trio." Ernest writes skillfully, fearlessly about the then-new New Criticism and explains how and why N.C. eventually contaminated--yes, nearly murdered--the craft of literature, yea, education. Here is a marvelous expose, a must, for a throng of serious writers who have been suffering in silence and wondering for some time what really went wrong. In TRAVELS WITH ERNEST the authors break down societal barriers of alienation by sharing their conversations, thoughts, experiences. It's the actual story of two people who love each other and share their work and their lives. I treasure this book. It's kind of like reality TV, but the ideas are more exciting, and the language is platinum. REVIEWER: Elizabeth Ann James

TRAVELS WITH ERNEST could be called Travels with Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, William Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, and William Butler Yeats, for its unique travel narratives are informed by a wide range of literary works. At one point Ernest Lockridge muses on his tendency to follow the footsteps of famous authors: "Myth and literature help order and direct your life, so you're not just traveling fecklessly about. They're like a map. We're able to map ourselves onto literature and onto myth." Lockridge and his wife, Laurel Richardson, travel with and without maps in TRAVELS WITH ERNEST, a hybrid volume combining travel narratives from two distinct perspectives. Lockridge and Richardson are both authors and emeritus professors at Ohio State University, Lockridge in English and creative writing and Richardson in sociology and cultural studies. For this book, they traveled to places as different as Death Valley, Beirut, and Ireland, each writing about the trip from his or her individual perspective; the book also includes transcripts of their conversations about the trips and the writing process. Ernest's essays, Laurel's essays, and the couple's conversations work together to triangulate in on exotic places and the process by which people come to know the world. Richardson describes their method: "Experiencing, writing, conversing, rewriting, conversing, writing. Although we agree on what we see, we have a different edge, a different take on experience." Most interesting are those forays that take the writers off the map entirely. Over and over again the map has been lost or left behind, but our intrepid explorers stumble on stubbornly, ending up lost or imperiled. Even while exploring familiar terrain, they discover hidden hazards. Lockridge, for instance, is haunted by memories of his father, novelist Ross Lockridge, who wrote RAINTREE COUNTY, a classic of mid-century Midwestern literature, and then committed suicide at the peak of his success. The terrain they travel is both exotic and familiar: a high-rise apartment building in Russia where they encounter cherished family members; a tiny apartment in Copenhagen that evokes memories of their student days; an ancient castle in Ireland that bears a family name. Wherever they travel--Beirut, Copenhagen, Shenandoah--they find their people, their history, themselves. And they also find Ohio. Lockridge describes Ireland's Midlands as "a dead ringer for Ohio on our best day of the year." Even while looking over Yeats's acclaimed Lake Isle of Innisfree, Lockridge finds an island paradise that looks familiar: "Thick with trees and shrubs it's the size of my back yard in Worthington, Ohio." Whatever maps its authors may follow, TRAVELS WITH ERNEST leads right back home.

I loved this book! Lockridge's humor pulled me in and Richardson's lyrical writing kept me reading. This is a book that cuts a broad swath through an academic couple's life. It took me to places I had never seen, made me think about my marriage in new ways and examine my career history with fresh eyes. Travels with Ernest is unique, compelling, and provocative. I highly recommend it.

As a writer, Foley has a great voice and puts it to fine use telling tales of his twenty-something to thirtysomething years. Great fun to read for those of use who never had the nerve to actually act on the universal impulse to chuck it all and head off to the frontier.

Finally! A real book by a real teacher who speaks like a real person. After reading about Foley's humorous exploits, I will never complain about my difficult classrooms again. Thanks for putting it all into perspective for me.

As a fellow teacher, I very much enjoyed "Tundra Teacher." John Foley is a great story teller and has the courage to give voice to what every teacher eventually feels confronted by: self-doubt, frustration and heart-breaking reality. What I like about this book is Foley's ability to lace humor and insight into his difficult teaching situations. Thanks much for this book.

This book is brilliantly written in concise language to give the reader insight into the historical figures that influence our heritage and world. So much information is given on so few pages, it should be listed as a must-read for spititual seekers.
Dr. Agnes Thomas

Manly P. Hall exquisitely explores and explains the lives and legends of Twelve World Teachers whose immortal influences place them amongst the 'Giants' of Moral/Spiritual/and Social Philosophy.

Recommended for All who desire a greater Appreciation and Understanding of the Icons and Inspirations that have brought Personal Illumination to the Family of Mankind.

A Masterpiece written to be enjoyed by persons of All Faiths.

Please read it,and, recommend it, to all True Seekers of Knowledge and Perennial Wisdom.

This book should be standard reading among all the people of the world. I feel then we would know a Culture of Peace!

Guy Bailey has put together an extremely helpful resource that has a wide variety of games that are simple, yet fun. I found it to be organized and easy to understand. Most importantly, my students are having a great time participating in the games used! I highly recommend this book to anyone needing fun and creative ideas to enhance their curriculum. Its great!

This book is very organized and gives you specific times for each activity. Highly recommended!!

The Ultimate Playground & Recess Game Book completely lives up to its title and offers classroom teachers, physical education instructors, playground supervisors, youth recreational leaders, and parents more than 170 fun-packed games, sports, and activities for recess and recreational time on the school yard playground, the community park, or the family back yard. Some of these games and sports learned in a school setting or a summer recreation program can be enjoyed for a lifetime. Some of these games will help to reduce student boredom at recess and thereby eliminate a major source of playground behavioral problems. Each game is fully described in a clear, concise, "user friendly" text which is enhanced with more than 150 illustrations to help visualize game directions and setup. An exceptionally useful "Activity Finder" chart makes it simple and quick to find games to meet the needs of the adult supervisors and the children. The Ultimate Playground & Recess Game Book is an indispensable and very welcome addition to any school, summer camp, or family activities reference shelf.

In Uncle, My Journey with John Purdue, Irena Scott has given us a well-written and well-researched historical biography of an important figure in middle Nineteenth Century America. Her McCammon family's obvious respect and admiration for "Uncle" John Purdue apparently motivated them to keep many records pertaining to his life and work. Proving that it can be a good thing for families to preserve old records and documents, the author has drawn heavily on these materials to present an intimate and in-depth portrait of her subject. We see John Purdue not only as a successful businessman and the founder of Purdue University, but as a man who also kept in close touch with his relatives and friends. In this biography we come to know him as a person who cared about those nearest to him and who generously shared his success and knowledge with them. I believe Uncle is the definitive story of John Purdue, his life and accomplishments. As one who had a chance to preview a small part of Irena Scott's work early on, I must say I was delighted with the finished product and the picture it gives of the life and times of one man and his part in the growth of our country.

This is a wonderful story of a fascinating man of tremendous vision and moral conscience. Born just over 200 years ago in a log cabin, his personal story is an inspirational one as told by his great-great grandniece. It paints a vivid picture of the rise of John Purdue to become one of the most influential Americans of his time. In his busy and fulfilling life, he involved himself in most major facets of the development of America during the 19th century. Whether you have an interest in farming or business, education or philanthropy, entrepreneurship or family.....his story will touch most everyone.

I was fortunate enough to first read "Uncle" as a work in progress. It is a very compelling book on a number of levels, and I believe that most serious readers will find it fascinating, even if they have little interest in or knowledge of John Purdue.

First of all, Ms Scott's journey is very personal--she had evidence in family documents and photos that Purdue was not entirely the steely, remote character depicted in other histories, and she set out to correct the record. In doing so, she wanted to personally feel Purdue's presence, so she visited the major centers of Purdue's life and talked to residents and historians in those places. What develops is a surprisingly evocative sense of an early American life that preceded the explosive growth of the industrial age.

Second, it's a sometimes poignant story of a young man becoming an American, shaped by immigrant roots, religion, family responsibilities, and the forces of culture. These factors combined with an innate intelligence, astounding ambition, and a reverence for learning to form one of the most influential capitalists in American history and the eventual founder of Purdue University.

Thirdly, "Uncle" is a wonderful portrait of a group of powerful landowners and railroad tycoons who propelled the nation westward. Purdue was one of them, and while they clashed and quarreled and amassed huge fortunes, they also built a country.

Ms. Scott is a fitting teller of this tale. She is a Ph. D., former university professor, and a naturalist. John Purdue would have been very proud of her.