Educators Books

This clearly written biography begins dramatically and is easy for children to understand. It has marvelous black and white illustrations and photographs throughout. As the story progresses it loses some of its drama. Nevertheless, I recommend this book for any student who wants to know more about this renowned educator.

I read a book about Mary McLeod Bethune. to me it was very interesting to me. Mary Jane McLeod was born July 10, 1875 to Sameul and Pasty McLeod. Mary was the fifteenth born out of seventeen children. She was born in Mayesville, South Carolina. Her family was just freed from slavery.Mary was expected to work in the fields. Each morning they got up at 5:00 a.m. Mary usualy spent 8 to 10 hours in the fields. She usualy picks abot 250 pounds daily. After all of that Mary started going to school. When Mary was 9 years old, she got a vist from Emma Wilson. Emma changed her life. Emma Wilson was a black educator. She founded a mission school for black children. The school was at Trinty Presbyterian Church in Mayesville. Mary had to wallk 5 five miles to school everyday. She grauted from the school in 1886. Mary got a scholarship to Scotia Seminary for black women. Shortly after those years passed, she graduated from Scotia Seminary. Mary began to go to Moody Bible Institue in Chicago. Since Mary could not become a missionary because she was black, she was very dissapointed.Soon after that, mary returned to South Carolia, and was Emma Wilson's assistant. A year after that Mary got her firts teaching job in Georgia. She taught at Haines Institue. It was a mission school for black children. Lucy Laney helped Mary along the way. in 1898, Mary Married Albertus Bethune. she was 23. She then moved to Savannah, Georgia. Mary had a baby boy in 1889. Shestopped teaching for a year. Mary and her famiy moved to Daytona, Florida in 1904. Mary's husband for 6 years could not find a job in florida. He went back to South Carolina. he later died in 1919. Mary was determined to opean a school soon. People told Mary that she did not have enough money to open a school. On October 3, 1904, Mary's school opened. It was called the Daytona Educational and Industrail School for Negro Girls. She had six students. Her school grew quickly. Bethune followed her dream. Since the school grew, Mary needed more taechers. they were paid $15 and $25 a month. Msry needed more land to expand her campous. She used the city dump. It had been emputy for five years. She brought it. The school was finished in 1907. Later it was renamed to Bethune Cookman College. Bethune needed money to keep the school going. People contributed money. Many things happened to Mary after that. Mary Mcleod Bethune died in 1955. Today her legacy lives on.

The title of David Grene's autobiography reflects the twin passions of his life. He was (I betray the source of my own familiarity with him by giving this half of his life pride of place) a classicist who spent nearly all of his career at the University of Chicago. He is perhaps best known as the co-editor of Chicago series of complete Greek tragedies, but he is widely published otherwise. I will always think of him primarily for his translation of Herodotus, published in 1988: I'm wearing out the second copy of the book that I've owned. Grene divided his time between teaching and farming. He grew up in Ireland but bought his first farm in Lemont, Illinois, in 1940. In later decades he divided his year between Chicago and a farm he owned in Ireland.

Grene wrote his memoirs between 1993 and 2002. He died on September 10th of the latter year. The resulting book is brief, but rich in subject matter. Grene writes about his family's origins and the influence on his life and the peculiarities of his Aunt Mary; he discusses the architecture and ambience of the Dublin of his youth and the theater--for which he felt a great affection--and various stages of his professional career (including his thoughts about classical pedagogy).

On the farming side of things, Grene writes about his experiences working as a boy on his cousins' farm in Tiperary.

"That spring there were twenty men employed in Grenepark; the farm was and is over four hundred acres, and very little mechanization was then to be had and almost no system of contracting. Today I doubt if it needs more than five or six men to run it. The laborers in 1929 had, for years, earned twenty-five shillings a week--one pound five. ...Nicholas decided that, at the rate he was paying, the place would go bankrupt. So he did a most unusual thing then; he called the men together, explained the situation, and told them that if they could all take ten shillings he'd be very glad to keep them. The alternative was to reduce the total staff to ten men at a pound a week. They were to decide. They unanimously decided to take the cut and stay."

And he reminisces about farming in the Midwest in the 1940s, a discussion which leads to his discussing some of the characters he knew during the period. Among these was a certain Louis Jacobs, a Lithuanian Jew who'd emigrated to America in 1910:

"He had a little house in town and was himself funny and appealing in a very special sort of way. There was a convent in Lemont with a farm run by nuns with some male help, and they used Louis to do their trucking. He told me one day that Mother Superior had spoken to him and said, 'Mr. Jacobs, I saw you last week trucking stock on a Sunday and that isn't right.' 'No,' said Louis, 'but you know, Sister, that isn't my Sabbath.' 'Ah, but Mr. Jacobs, I saw you trucking livestock on the day before.'"

Grene returns repeatedly in the book to twin themes, the joy to be had from--the rightness of--working a small farm, and the inherent benefit of the bond that develops between man and animal when working a farm.

Grene comes across in these pages as an extraordinary man whose great intellect was coupled with humility and wide-ranging curiosity. His writing is dense, but precise and thoughtful, as if each sentence was polished until it carried its burden of meaning as perfectly as possible. It is an old-fashioned sort of writing, perhaps, but then Mr. Grene lived an old-fashioned sort of life.

-- Debra Hamel

Growing up on a small farm in eastern PA about 70 years ago, has left fond memories and a cognizance that one's young experiences play into evertday life. During a 40 year career , I lived in Europe and traveled the wine country meeting farmers . The bond was immediate regardless of language . We understood the earth and the sense of intimacy in a handful of cool, damp soil .
This book delved into those aspects to some extent and led the reader through a career in education . I related easily to his horse experiences (I now breed horses), but somewhat selfishly, expected a more intimate touch . An very enjoyable read without question . I have passed it on to my Brother , an educator in the humanities and a hose owner . It's the blood.

"Touching Tomorrow" represents a thorough and detailed history of Emily Griffith and Denver's Opportunity School. The transition from prairie schoolmarm to influential innovator is inspiring, entertaining and well documented.
Obviously a great admirer of Ms. Griffith, Faulkner still manages to create a mostly unbiased account of the teacher's life. While some details are either glossed over or merely alluded to, this can easily be attributed to the lack of verifiable information. Other specifics tend to be overstated, making the book at times read like a collection of serialized installments. However, the author's ability to create a timely and relevant backdrop helps place Griffith's life in historic perspective and adds to the enjoyment of this biography.

After going to a fantastic book reading by the author, I picked up the book because I was interested in hearing more about Faulkner's theory on Emily Griffith's murder. I was not dissapointed in the least at Faulkner's eloquent yet lively interpretation of this amazing woman's life and her murder theories. You will read this book in 2 days. It is well worth the purchase, as Emily's life is testament to lessons applicable to today's educational system.

I rather enjoyed this biography on Reginald Johnston. Despite what the other reviewer has said (quite funny), I doubt very much that Johnston would have been able to "mandhandle Pu Yi" as he must have been closely supervised by his minders, some of whom were eunuchs and may have had similar tendencies.
An uninteresting man, with ambiguous tendencies, thrust into the limelight just by rubbing shoulders with the last Emperor, Johnston did write a couple of travel books on China which are probably his more enduring legacy

If you want to find out what kind of a brainwashing, low down, good for nothing person Reginald Johnston is like, then you need to read this book. This old cockraoch constantly used the kid emperor for his own needs. Johnston taught the young emperor about homosexuality as Johnston was a homosexual. Johnston should go down in history for a child molester and thief of children.

Eleanor Renee Rodriguez and James Bellanca's WHAT IS IT ABOUT ME YOU CAN'T TEACH? AN INSTRUCTIONAL GUIDE FOR THE URBAN EDUCATOR blends classroom expectations and standards with research-based practices to show teachers how to delivery high-quality education in any environment. The focus here is on urban students, developing strategies that help students take responsibility and control of the learning process. Chapters present four basic comprehension strategies and pair these ideas with tactics for success.

The book is rooted on the cognitive development theories of Feuerstein. The theory is sound. The practical applications of these principles in a 'real' classroom seem daunting. There are sample lesson plans printed in the book (although most of them are geared toward the middle school aged child and not the high school level). The authors do a fine job of reviewing reading scaffolds (ie. word maps, graphic organizers, KWL charts, etc). However, in my opinion, they rely too heavily on cooperative grouping for the lessons that are proposed in the text.

The book helps balance the literature we have in the field of the history of philosophy of education. I use it in my grad and undergrad courses in the philosophy of ed. The students are really spellbound.

Titone and Maloney capture a variety of different philosophies of education of key women philosophers throughout history. Many of the philosophers included in "Women's Philosophies of Education" represent minorities that are of particular importance. This book served as a perfect text for a course entitled "Philosophy of Education".

This is not a book of ice breakers or social games, but true reflective activities to do with your staff or educational group. Very useful and practical.

Woods gives us an engaging narrative of his life. From what is undoubtedly a vanished lifestyle in a fishing family in New Zealand before World War 2, to air combat over the Pacific during that war, and then the decades afterwards in academia.

Many readers may find his descriptions of the war to be the most interesting sections. Not your typical autobiography of an academic!

He became quite an expect on plasma research. But in this field, funding at Oxford, or indeed anywhere in Britain, was sparse, compared to the Americans and Russians. Early plasma research was small scale. But as efforts grew to scale up the densities and temperatures, so too did the funding requirements rise. It must have been a continual source of frustration to him.

This book lays clear the story of a man who through his personal integrity, chrisma, and faith inspired so many to pursue social justice.

I confess I only read D. C. Somervell's abridgment of Arnold Toynbee's first six volumes A Study of History, so I cannot claim to be a student of his work, but I was impressed mightily by that reading. This biography of Toynbee by the eminent historian William H. McNeill is of consistent interest and does not fail to relate Toynbee's troubled personal life as well as explore his eminent historical writing life. After reading this bio I concluded that Toynbee's theories and prophecies have not proved overly valid. E.g., he feared the U.S. more than Soviet Russia, and that is a novel and unspportable fear to me, naturally. Toynbee, along with most great thinkers, did not foresee the Soviet collapse. I think an interesting work would be an exploration of the why so many people looked on Communism as the wave of the future, even including Whittaker Chambers. Does anyone know of a good book exploring that phenomenon?