Organizations Books

This book is priceless when it comes to accessible, detailed, and critical how-to information on how to write grants. I highly recommend Grassroots Grants as a vital resource for any progressive activist who needs to raise cash for the movement.

As a staff member of a community foundation, I am called upon to give numerous presentations on how to get grants. I never fail to suggest buying Andy's book. It will pay for itself--and it's a good read besides. Virginia Martinez

Andy Robinson is one the best grassroots grant writers in the country. His book and a class I took from him helped us triple our budget from grants. The new edition is even better with excellent examples of winning grants from across the country.

I have long been a fan of Andy Robinson's writing and this is his best book to date. Useful for both new and experienced grant seekers. This book will now be number one on my list of recommendations for participants in my grant seeking workshops and I will make sure that each of the new fundraisers that I coach have a copy.

I'm the author of another book about "grant writing" for nonprofits, but still I heartily recommend this book. In fact, Grassroots Grants is the only other book about grant seeking I recommend. Here's why.

Grassroots Grants demonstrates on nearly every page how grant seeking can be compatible with the idealistic nature of small nonprofits. Though it is unquestionably and unapologetically written for what might be called the "progressive" movement in the US, its principles apply to activist organizations of any stripe. In the sometimes cynical world of fundraising, it's refreshing to see values so consistently applied. The author leaves no doubt: fundraising isn't just a game played with money and ego, it's about changing the world. The author's strong sense of purpose resonates warmly with the reader's.

Second, the book has an abundance of examples -- proposal narratives, budgets, etc. -- that very effectively demonstrate some basic principles of good writing and good grant seeking. For beginners these examples do a lot to demystify the job of grant seeking; they help the beginner get off to a quick start. For experienced fundraisers, they provide new ideas about style and presentation. I admire the numerous examples in this book enough to wish there were more in mine!

In contrast, I do think that one kind of advice is treated a bit lightly in this book: the task of managing the creation, submission, etc. of many proposals simultaneously. That topic has implications for the bottom line and for organizational values, and is a big topic in my book. But I have to admit, it is not terribly relevant for someone who is trying to write their first grant or two or three.

True to its title, Grassroots Grants keeps its focus on grassroots topics, and very much succeeds on that basis. It is authentic and helpful.

Amazing !
This book explained me for the first time the words of the Roman Canon we say at every Mass:
"Deign to regard with gracious and kindly attention and hold acceptable, as You deigned to accept the offerings of Abel, Your just servant, and the sacrifice of Abraham our Patriarch, and that which Your hight priest Melchisedech offered to You, a holy Sacrifice and a spotless victim. Most humbly we implore You, Almighty God, bid these offerings to be brought by the hands of Your Holy Angel to Your sublime altar, before the face of Your Divine Majesty."
The book explains that what the priest does during the Mass cames from what the ancient high priests of the first Temple did when in the Holy of the Holies.
More: this amazing book also gives a key to better understand the first Christian literature: many themes that no other books succeeded to explain now are very clear.

While I do not agree with Barker's main conclusion - that El/Elyon was exclusively equivalent of the Christian "Father in Heaven" and Yahweh was the preexisting Jesus (I think "Yahweh" applies to both) - this book is a great reference into the primary sources. A must have for any serious theological library.

This book bridges the gap between Judaism and Christianity and refutes alot of preconceived ideas that Hellenistic Platonic ideas embellished what began as a simple Jewish Messianic movement. Barker claims that the rituals of the Orthodox Church go back to a more ancient form of Judaism based on the First Temple which was suppressed in the 7th century BC by King Josiah and later Ezra who rewrote the Old Testament which we now have. However, the beliefs of this form of First Temple Judaism were still prevalent in Jesus' day and were revered by groups such as the community responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Jewish Apocryphal literature. After 70AD this form of Judaism survived in Christianity.
Some of these ideas are found sporadically in the Old Testament ie Ezekiel's vision of the Chariot Throne, Isaiah's visions in the Holy of Holies, and the seventh chapter of Daniel's "Son of Man". However, the emphasis on the Melchizedek Priesthood, Enoch, and Heavenly ascents which are found in the New Testament, especially Hebrews and Revelation, are all but absent in the Old Testament.
First Temple Judaism stressed the idea that certain mortals achieved a divine status and ascended to Heaven while they were still alive, that Yahweh, the Lord of Israel was the Son of God and that Wisdom was his mother. The emphasis and revered status of Wisdom was replaced by the Law by Jewish reformers returning from Babylon.
Jesus saw himself as the incarnation of the Lord of Israel, the preexistant Son of God. The vision he had of Heaven opening during his baptism, of the entire world when he was in the wilderness, and his transfiguration were all part of a belief system which can only be found in the New Testament and Jewish apocryphal literature, particularly the books of Enoch, The Ascension of Isaiah, and the Odes of Solomon.
Barker defends Philo's premise that Plato was more influenced by Judaism than the other way around. Pythagorus, who influenced Plato, received his religious ideas in Palestine and Syria during the time of Ezekiel and before the reform of Judaism.
The Eucharist, which is the most important sacrament beside baptism, is the continuation of the Day of Atonement ritual in which Jesus took the roles of the High Priest as well as the sacrifice. Orthodox churches still perform the ritual in a separate area of the church which corresponds to the Holy of Holies in the First Temple which represents Heaven on Earth.
Many of the rituals of the primitive church to include the liturgy, signing with the cross, praying toward the east, were passed down from Jesus and the disciples in secret and were not committed to writing because the deeper meanings of these rituals could only be understood by a few. Some of the earliest fathers attested to this to include, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Ignatius of Antioch, and Basil of Caesarea.
The Orthodox liturgy is a reenactment of the events portrayed in the book of Ezekiel and Revelation. The deeper meanings of these two books can only be understood as such and not turned into ridiculous modern day science fiction.
Barker spends alot of time discussing the significance of the ancient Holy of Holies which contained the ark and the throne of the Lord and how ancient kings, beginning with Solomon were anointed with divine status there and how prophets received revelations there. The figure of Wisdom, the feminine aspect of God the Father, was described in The Gospel of the Hebrews as Jesus' mother, not unlike Philo writing about Wisdom giving birth to the Logos. The Trinity doctrine and the veneration of Mary were not Hellenistic additions to Christianity but sprang from the very Judaism which Jesus and his followers belonged to which was suppressed and all but destroyed by both Christians and Jews later on.
I'm glad I ordered the paperback version of this book when I did. It should definitely be brought back.

I enjoyed and highly praised Ms. Barker for her book "The Great Angel" in which she demonstrates that the first Abrahamic Jews were instead Henotheistic - that is, a belief in multiple Gods while reserving worship for one of those many Gods - and so picked up this book shortly thereafter I was done with "The Great Angel". I was not disapointed at all. Once again Ms. Barker has shown that, despite the common protests of Evangelical Christians, the first Christians, like the early Hebrews, not only followed strict ordinances and priesthood institutions, including Temple ceremonies, but that they had Henotheistic - if not polytheistic - views. She also deomstrates how the first Christians viewed Jesus as Yahweh incarnate - not El or God the Father - and shows plainly from biblical texts - both cannonical and non-cannonical - that Jesus was not viewed as God icarnate until later Greek and Latin Church Fathers basically did what Josiah did in 621 B.C.E. that is, change and alter biblical texts into conforming with their Hellenized views. (This is something that Mr. Ehrman shows effectively in his book "Misquoting Jesus")

But the part that I was most impressed with was Ms. Barker section of the book that deals with the Melchezidek Priesthood and it's role in the early Christian Temple ritual. I can't do the book any justice by trying to explain this in my review, so I will instead simply recommend that the reader read it for him/herself.

So, in the end, this book was a convincing and compelling tome that shows that, contrary to what anti-Mormon critics such as James White want you to think, the first Christians not only practiced Temple rituals but that they held Henotheistic views as well.

So I would recommend this book as an essential read to those who are interested in 1st century Christianity. I also would recommend "The Great Angel" to read along with this excellent tome.

(Looks like Joseph Smith is coming out on top once again against his critics. And it looks like he was right about one thing, that is, that Temple ritual is essential within God's Plan of Salvation and was understood by the first Christians. Praise to the Man!!)

Margaret Barker taps into the Temple ceremonies of Israel and the Early Christian Church to show a pattern of supression among the leaders in both. The sacred oral traditions of temple worship are wonderfully covered. Her insight into pre-exile Israelite beliefs, the Deuteronomist purge and the very early christian writings is inspiring. I loved every page and recommend it to those who share a belief in the lost cult of the temple.

My AP American History teacher in Miami took the rest of the time after the AP exam to teach us this book. The analysis by Haga on bureaucracy and the evil of breakloops is great. The humor is worthwhile and i look at the world in a completely different light. This year was this teacher's last teaching year. She is now retired and will no longer take time to teach this amazing book. Another reviewer above has also written about her, she is amazing. From all of your students at Dr. Michael Krop High School in Miami WE LOVE YOU MRS. GIBBS!!!

I read this book while a graduate student of Dr. James Haga's at Monterey CA in 1979. While tongue-in-cheek, the book is an amazingly accurate analysis of bureaucracy. As a 26 year alumnus of the US Navy and 6 year employee at the Pentagon, I consider myself an expert on bureaucracy, and I have never found a flaw in Dr. Haga's thesis. Jim Haga is a remarkable professor in management. Reading his book is the next best thing to experiencing him in the classroom. You'll love it. And that's just a fact.

My A.P. history teacher in highschool down in Miami took a month off of the curriculim to teach out of this book. It changed my life and how I interact with soical groups and indiviudals. Since I left highschool in 98 I was never able to obtain a copy of this book. Until now. I owe my success at college to this book. IF YOU ARE READING THIS THAN YOU MUST PURCHASE THIS BOOK! DO NOT HESITATE.THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

I was given a galley proof of this work when I left college. I owe much of my success as a product engineer to these principles. It taught me a babancing consideration before I am compulsively driven to offer an operational fix to a minor problem. This ought to be part of any social science curriculum.

Haga's Law spells out what we have all observed in organizations, especially Government and Political Parties. It explains how and WHY human nature drives ordinary oganizations like the PTA into becoming oppressive thought police agencies.

Consider this book essential reading before you are tempted to start an organization you can't kill. You never know when that harmless stamp collecting club you started might grow to the point of lobbying the state government to license and regulate the hobby!

Elizabeth Bear's duology featuring an alternative version of the Shakespeare and Marlowe we know from history definitely one the best books I've read this year.

Imagine Will Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe in an Elizabethan setting paired with fairies and then add to that the appearance of Morgan Le Fey and her son as well as recurring references to both Shakespeare's and Marlowe's plays. Honestly this made me do two things: a) want to re-read my favorite Shakespeare works (mostly the tragedies) and b) switch classes for the coming semester from British Modern Literature to Renaissance. That really doesn't happen all too often, but those books totally motivated me to study the Elizabethan era closer.

In her extended author's note at the end of Hell and Earth, Elizabeth Bear calls this duology a 'disservice to history', but honestly I couldn't imagine re-vamping Shakespeare and Marlowe in any better way. She works with some popular theories concerning the two poets' lives and portrays her characters in a way that make them very realistic and complex. She states that the Marlowe-Shakespeare relationship she creates in The Stratford Man is almost entirely fictional, but then again it really does make you wonder "What if?" and I think that's been the intention of the book.

The other thing that really intrigued me about those books what its realism and how accurately Bear worked with the historical context such as society and political background. Of course the work is fictional in the end, but she manages to have to write about homosexuality, politics and the entire concept of the Prometheus Club very 'in context', which makes the story rounder and the fantasy elements fit into the concept without jarring.

These two books are definitely not quick reads for entertainment only. It took me about two to three days to get through each, not because of the size, but because of the content that's very heavy on history and politics and last but not least on the language. Bear doesn't use 100% accurate Elizabethan language in her dialogue (no 'here sitteth' etc. no worries), but it's more or less the speech characters would have used at that time.

Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth are chronologically set before the other two Promethean Age books Blood and Iron and Whiskey and Water. I'm just starting Blood and Iron, but had no problems getting into the story and the whole concept of the Prometheus Club, even though the Stratford Man duology came out after the two aforementioned books. It's definitely a good starting point if you haven't read any of Bear's books yet. Definitely go for it :D

P.S.: This so made Kit Marlowe my favorite hystorical fantasy crossover character of all time :D I can't wait to read more!

The adventures of Marlowe and Shakespeare (begun in Ink and Steel) move from the Faerie court back to London as they begin to deal with devils and angels as well as the Fae. As Will struggles with the traitor Prometheans' machinations, Kit has to explore his painful history with them in order to find the key to their undoing.

I can't recommend these books highly enough. They're elegant and tragic, but chock-full of the clever wordplay and bawdy wit that make Shakespeare and Marlowe such fun to read.

This book will break your heart, over and over, and then put it back with superglue. It's a book about intrigue, doing the right thing, the wrong thing, the morally ambiguous thing. It's about caring for another person and trying to find a way to care about yourself. It is an amazing, amazing, novel.

Two kingdoms in two different worlds but tied together as both ruled by queens bound by magic but each in jeopardy of seeing their regime end. For England's Queen Elizbath I, Prometheus Club playwrights Will Shakespeare and Kit Marley risk their lives to keep her safe and on the throne; Faerie Queen Mab's only wordsmith is Kit who crosses the veil between the two realms, but has other supporters too.

However, now even the prominent Prometheus Club members feel the curtain is closing on their Queen. Fearing for England, they argue over whether it is time for a regime change rather than wait for nature to do the inevitable. Kit believes both worlds need their queens to remain in power and seeks allies from both sides to insure this happens as dark magic has surfaced; Will is beginning to show his age as he enters the fourth act of life. Humans, faeries, and malevolent monsters want to end the Promethean Age and begin a new eon of darkness.

The latest Promethean Age historical fantasy thriller continues the exciting The Stratford Man saga, but series fans need to read INK AND STEEL before HELL AND EARTH to learn how events got to where they are. The story line is fast-paced from the onset yet also contains intriguing references to the real Marlowe and Shakespeare, which in turn makes the magic of their words seem even more genuine as well as their relationship. Elizabeth Bear's terrific two-book entry is the Promethean Age at its seditious best with treachery threatening to destroy the reigns Queens Mab and Elizabeth.

Harriet Klausner

Oh. My. God. These are not the books for you if you are intolerant of literary wankery. I would also like to point out that I suspect they will make more sense if you have a grounding in the changing nature of God. If you do love literary fiction, this is an excellent example of the genre.

Oh, the heartbreaking beauty of this book. I devoured it in a day. Which, given that it's a 400-pg book and it was a work day, you can see that I did pretty much nothing else. And political intrigue! And delicious foreshadowing! And the lovely conceit that all stories are true, somewhere, and that they affect the reality of Fairie. I mean, that's been touched on before, but this one is deliciously effectively used.
----
"No," Kit answered. "He could have been forgiven. Anyone can be forgiven, who repents. Faustus had opportunity, time, and chance to repent, again and again and again. But he never meant to. Never meant to repent, my lord [spoiler]."
:Then what was his fatal flaw, Sir Poet?: Lucifer's eyes sparkled. He tilted his head aside, lovelocks drifting against the exquisite curve of his neck. Enjoying the game.
" 'But Faustus' offence can ne'er be pardoned,' " Kit quoted. "The serpent that tempted Eve may be saved, but not Faustus.' Faustus' flaw was the sin of Judas, who deemed his transgression too great to repent of, and thereby diminished the love of God, who can forgive any offense, so long as the sinner wishes forgiveness. Faustus sinned by hubris."
---
That! That right there! That's what made me twitter that I was crying, because it is so perfectly correct, so true, so chewy in the intersection of theology and literature. Believing you are unforgiveable is to diminish God's love. :waves arms madly.

Um, yeah. Start with Ink & Steel. Don't blame me if you have to take a day off.

We purchased copies of this book for all of our board members after a consultant recommended it and I reviewed it. This is a very quick read (less than an hour), but the book is filled with great passages about the way a good board should function. Thought-provoking questions end each chapter. If you have a non-profit with a board, or you are on such as board, BUY THIS BOOK!

Gayle Gifford must have been an inquisitive child, because she asks a lot of questions. Really good questions -- the kind that ought to have obvious answers, but then you think about them and realize the answers are more complex, and more important, than you first imagined. Her new book, How Are We Doing?, includes 34 questions that all nonprofit boards should be asking themselves. Questions like, "Do we appreciate our directors for what they do?" and "Are we prepared to respond to a changing world?"

Each of these topics could fill an entire book -- and several have -- but none is this concise: you can read the entire book in an hour. If you serve on a nonprofit board and you're unclear about your role or your impact, read this one -- it might be the most productive hour you spend on board governance issues.

I loved this book. It's more than a book about evaluating performance... it's a great how-to for creating a board of any organization's dreams. Broken down into short chapters, it's well written and easy to read. The ideas contained in this small book are BIG and important - definitely on the cutting-edge as related to where the field is going.

This is a lot of wisdom in a small space, an easy to read-and-understand approach to determining if a non-profit board is doing what it should be doing. Each brief chapter focuses on one idea, and leaves no doubt in a reader's mind about how to determine what would work best for their organization. I am already using that one sentence, "It's negligent to keep investing money in programs without proof they make a difference," as part of my discussions with clients. This is a book I can, and will, recommend to clients and colleagues, secure in the knowledge that they will thank me for the recommendation.

This book will be an invaluable resource for busy Board members who want to focus their efforts on both the practicalities of their job as well as the greater vision which inspired them to volunteer in the first place. The key to this book is in the sub-title - A 1-Hour Guide to Evaluating your Performance as a Nonprofit Board. It is a rare find - simple, straightforward and designed for busy people. Each chapter is just a few pages long and ends with questions for the reader and/or Board collectively to answer. These questions are then summarized at the end in an Evaluation Survey. Sections include Making Our Community Better, Becoming Good Stewards and Building a Great Board. In an easy format to carry with you, it will surely become a staple for many Board meetings.

Strategy is the framework of choices that determine
the nature and direction of an organization. Top management
must take the time to develop strategy to position
the organization in its external environment and
focus decisions such as whom to hire, priority of product
development projects, capabilities to build into business
processes, the structure of the organization, as well
as daily decisions.

It is refreshing to run across a business book that goes beyond generalizations. In How Organizations Work, Alan Brache deconstructs the business organization to reveal all the elements of which it is made up. He then examines each, methodically, raising questions that really enable an executive to take stock and stock planning for improvement.
I worked with Alan many years ago, and I'm pleased to say that he is as lucid and logical as ever--and remains just as witty. His writing is crisp and to the point, and the real-life case studies that he intersperses ensure that the reader is never bored.
Alan has done a fine job with a subject that, in other hands, could have been not only dull but also purely theoreti-cal. Instead, this is a book you can read once to get the big picture, then go back to again and again for practical day-to-day advice.

Dale Corey, Business Writer & Researcher

Reading "How Organizations Work" was not only an "easy read" [as was promised in the foreward] - but provided far more meaty content than one might expect.

In the game of golf there is an expression called "sneaky long". This is often used in reference to a golfer who seems to effortlessly swing at the ball and drives it much further than one might expect.

I would call Brache's book "sneaky profound". It makes a series of key points in such an easy way that if the reader is not careful - one might miss the nuggets of intellectual gold.

The book is full of valuable self assessment questions - which are easy to tailor to any given organization - given the investment of a little thought.

The repeated references to the central role of business processes have substance and meaning in the context of the "Enterprise Model".

This book is really worthwhile reading not just once - but two and maybe threee times to get full value.

Using a model of an enterprise, this book is a guide for exploring key aspects of organization, revealing how they are interrelated, and assessing them. The work focuses on: the external environment; leadership; strategy; business processes; goals and measurement; human capabilities; knowledge management; organizational structure; and culture. There are self-assessment questions throughout the book and numerous guidelines for diagnosing and designing a healthy organizational. Illustrations are used to flesh-out the diagnostic process. The work is a how-to guide; it is well organized, comprehensive, and highly useful. As a management consultant in organization analysis and design, as well as editor of Stern's Management Review, I seldom have encountered a book on this subject that is as straight-forward in its delivery of value as this work. Highly recommended.

How many times have we been disappointed in the content of a book after having been impressed by the slick words on the jacket? Well, prepare yourself! Sometimes things really are the way they are stated. No illusions. And this is just such the case with Alan Brache's new book "How Organizations Work."

From his opening quotation of holistic unity from Chief Seattle on the jacket to his final inspiring words at the conclusion of the book, Brache ties all the elements of improving organization performance together in a scholarly, yet easy to read creation. His "Enterprise Model" for organizations, provides an impressive blueprint or x-ray for understanding the "complex network of interlocking factors" which contribute to How Organizations Work.

Using a model analogous to human biology, Brache has provided a framework within which we might better understand our organizations and the various factors that influence performance.

It is a great, easy read -- just in time for our serious summer reading list. Enjoy!

Probably the BEST book on network marketing presentations ever written. And, a very easy read. Mike Stokes <> Baton Rouge, LA

This book contains many nice metaphors which you can apply to other areas beyond MLM organizations. Let me use the "Ships" metaphor in a conventional business company.

Consider you already have managers in your staff and are going to open a new venture - the network of supermarkets. There should be at least one talented manager for each supermarket. Some manager will be working properly, their supermarkets will be profitable but they won't yield any further development. Such people are calling "Silver Ships". Now consider people who are even in moderate ranks will act as self-motivating and self-organizing managers, able to infuse their ideas into the public mind, do things with small increments but finish them for sure. Such people are your "Golden Ships", with whom you should share leadership functions. Of course, there may also exist "Empty Ships" into whom you may invest lots of time, energy, other resources, but this would not pay off. You should definitely get rid of the empty ships, because they do not let silver and golden ships stand on their places.

"Silver Ships" are good workers but do not expand your business. If your team will only contain of them, you will be profitable for a while, but your organization will lack flexibleness and won't be able to adapt to the quickly-changing condition of the modern world, and you will collapse sooner or later. "Golden Ships" are full of initiative, they don't need much external propelling force, and preoccupied with organizational flourishing, growth and change.

Did you read in the management literature that it's the manager's business to motivate the employees, to keep their morale high, to make them love their job, and so on? If all of your colleagues are "Empty Ships", your efforts to motivate them won't bring any result and you will quickly loose your own passion. This is not the case with "Silver Ships", who consume your motivation fruitfully, but the level of energy you will spend on them will be less then what they will give to you, and your own motivation won't rise very high. Now imagine what will happen if you give your energy to the "Golden Ships", who already are capable of giving their energy to their mates. You won't need to spend enormous energy to motivate them, and they have already created enough motivation around them, or even turned some "Silver Ships" to "Golden Ships".

The management literature which claims to teach how to motivate the staff won't help you if you are enclosed by the "Empty Ships". Such literature assumes that you always NEED something while your employees do NEVER want to do anything unless you stimulate of motivate them properly. Just get rid of these people and find someone who are motivated by the job and who are capable of motivating you. You may have tough times in your life and may not always have liveliness to motivate even yourself, when you NEED to motivate the staff according to this literature. This is wrong situation. You need to have such subordinates that will motivate you. Such subordinates have ideas and enthusiasm, while you have experience that you might want to share. Imagine how your motivation will will be raising when you are surrounded by the "Golden Ships". Just concentrate your efforts on attracting enough people of this kind around you, and they will be attracting good people around them.

Don Failla's lessons are time tested and easy to learn and pass on. Network Marketing is about duplication, and these napkin presentations are easy to duplicate. Learn them, teach them, and teach your downline to teach them.

I'd not heard of this book but received it through ... [a] BookClub. It's so easy to read, interesting, and full of greatinformation. If everyone in my organization, or any network marketing / MLM organization got their hands on this book, they would see the "Big Picture" very quickly and they would get started YESTERDAY in this business. You can get through this book in an evening or two and once you start it, you'll be eager to finish and get started!

This book was the very first thing that my incredibly successful sponsor gave to me. A man of few words, he said "Read this and you will understand!" I found the book intrigueing and bulging with possibility on my first read.

Working with a Network Marketing company in Europe, this book and its ideas is now the very basis of how we work. We have been very successful by keeping our strategy and teaching very simple and easy to understand.

I have read a lot of other MLM and Network Marketing books since, many of these adopt a name the best people or an upbeat rah rah approach, but I keep returning to Don Failla because it is so well named ; The Basics.
It could also be named All You will Ever Need to Know!

In my organisation Don's book is now the very first thing I give to my people. Every time I get some fancy idea, I just re-read it myself. The book has the habit of showing you just what you should be doing, no matter how successful you become.

I think its strength comes with dealing in the basics from their original telling which was so close to the wisdom that Don had aquired. The truths and methods do not really date and though it is told with obviously an American audience in mind, the ideas and there re-telling works worlwide.

This book has a permanent place on my desk and is the absolute foundation of re-learning and re-building my working life. I can not imagine it being improved, just re-printed.

I encourage anyone, everyone to read about these theories and apply them as best as they can to students, their own children, other children they may encounter, if you are stuck in that must-sit-still-and-listen traditional-mindset, you owe it to yourself and others to open up your mind to how kids learn differently. Would love to have this be enforced reading for certain teachers my children and I have encountered in the past.

If you ever thought your child might have ADHD, or any other learning disability, you must read this. If you are a pediatrician, it's likely you've been pressured by schools into diagnosing patients with ADHD. Please read this before you do. Teachers/educational specialists can really learn from the masterpiece:"In Their Own Way". The brilliant author, Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., inspires us to "respect the garden of childhood" and not slap a "flawed label" such "attention deficit hyperactivity" on kids. Many kids have been branded as "underachievers", "learning disabled", simply have a nontraditional style of learning, Armstrong says. Each child has his own unique combination of multiple intelligences in learning, which must be honored and nurtured." We should not be putting these kids in remedial groups or writing them off as underachievers. Instead, he suggests: "We should use better teaching strategies appropriate to the real needs of the kids, based on their multiple intelligences." Better yet, Dr. Armstrong gives concrete teaching strategy suggestions parents and teachers can follow. He also lists learning materials, books, games,internet sites, and computer software to foster the eight intelligences. If we believe Dr. Armstrong, nurturing kids is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Children rise to the highest level of our expectations. Parents and teachers can have hope. A generation of "ADHD labeled" kids or "learning disabled" kids need not be thought of as patients needing lifelong medication or remediation, but as potential Stephen Hawkings, just waiting to be nurtured properly. It is our responsibility to help these souls find their own way. It is our future.

I read this book while on a 3 hour bus ride to St Mary's City with my son's 4th grade class. I was so overjoyed to have found something that provided a glimmer of recognition for my son's abilities. He was labled ADD and after several years of fighting it I was finally starting to say "Well, he is very bright, BUT he has ADD." Well, now I will say he is a Kinesthetic, Spatial and partially linguistic learner. He is bright and capable and he just doesnt fit into the traditional teaching styles, along with another 80% of the population. There is nothing WRONG with him. This book can help so many people regain confidence in themselves, their children and loved ones. Confidence that our tradtional school sytem has systematically destroyed in hundreds of thousands of bright, wonderful children by trying to force them to learn in a way that is not only unatural for them, but also, many times, impossible. This book helped me to understand my son, myself,and even my husband. Now I have some of the tools that can help me reach them. ADD may exist, but 99% of it is in the eye of the beholder.

This is the kind of book you have to keep replacing because when you loan it out it won't come back!

The Education Products Information Exchange shockingly reported, 80% of the content in school textbooks was known by students before they studied. If the content was known then education meant time consumption and rising tides of mediocrity. A national education reaction was expressed in the book "Nation at Risk" providing the following recommendation: 1) rigorous grading 2) more standardized tests 3) better textbooks 4) and adherence to English, Math, Science, Social Sciences, and Computer Science. The core curriculum was designed for students to compete against other nations but considered boring by students.

What does 500 million standardize test mean? First, standardized implies keeping someone out. Standardize tests force sterilization of alleged defective individuals. In 1930, standardized tests were used to keep immigrants out of the U.S. One should be asking themselves, "Is formal testing the best way to determine competency?", "What do these tests measure?" and "Do these test encourage fault finding rather than discovery of strengthens?" Business maximums absolutely focus on strengthens rather than weakness to survive. Businesses manage weakness. What doesn't the educational system do likewise? Standardizing tests are faulty in their construction, represent poor subject selection, and faulty in research design. 500 million standardize tests means significant defect!

Learning Disability implies a specific neurological disorder. Interestingly, no biological neurological correlation has been proven indicating learning disorder students have a problem. So no biological proof exists that these student's brains are different. Diagnostics do not access the students learning style. Instead, the learning disability diagnostics are used to pick and pry for weakness administered by certified qualified experts. These qualified experts do not have comparable academic qualifications such as Phds in professional psychiatry or psychology. Yet the experts are making professional assessments about the student education capabilities. Experts diagnose to the following disabilities: dyslexia, hyperactivity, dysfunctional auditory, sequential memory, attention deficit, reading difficulty, math block, underachievement, and overachievement.

Learning Disability is revolutionary in scope, 50% of the students are labeled with a certain degree of learning disability, including overachievers. Perhaps these students just learn differently and the mere suggestion that one model for learning applies to all students is irrational. For example, Norman Geschwind, observed those "dyslexic" students, "probably a mythical made-up term", have: unusual drawing and artistic skills, a strong mechanical aptitude, and above average special dimension capability. A learning diagnostic revolution has permeated the education system. Students are required to sit for long periods of time and decode long complicated instructions. Teachers talk too much, 1/5 of the day is spent in teacher explanations and instructions. Too much talking "at" and not "to" the student; too much money interest, $1.5 billion in textbook sales ensure that product is politically and culturally marketed and declarative statements help ensure students believe absolutely; too much task analysis, task analysis represents a fragmented approach to learning where each activity is broke in parts and performance measured against the parts. The end result is a current count of 2 million students labeled as having a learning disability. The percent increase of 21.5% in 1977 too 40.9% by 1983 suggests more students need special education services and these services need federal additional funding. Few of these educationally handicapped children ever make it back into mainstream education.

Contrarian's evidence builds up. Any contradictory evidence is viewed with skepticism and rejection, but gradually contrary evidence builds until such time it cannot be rejected. Teachers teach from their lesson plans. Lesson plan educational training ignores the multiple intelligence of the student. The huge number of "Home-Schooler's" and their movement suggests evidence that learning intelligence models have become an issue. The problem is not the system structure: public verse charter/private nor public verses home-school, but in the ignorance about learning intelligence.

Can the system really have so many learning disabled students? A new learning model must emerge. Many parents feel they need to motivate their children to learn. Perhaps learning starts by determine the type or combination of intelligence types, your child exhibits: linguistic learn best by saying, hearing, and seeing words; logical learn best by forming concepts and looking for abstract patterns and relationships; spatial learn through images, pictures, and color; kinesthetic learn by touching, manipulation, and movement; musical learn through rhythm and melody; interpersonal learn best by relating and cooperating; intrapersonal learn best when left too them selves. Learning how to get your c

As an IT professional, I understand the need for quick and complete information, and this book gives it. The learners guide for beginners and the definitive guide for advanced users all in one package. Inovative, and thought inspiring, the theories in design and implimentaion are on the cutting edge of design concepts...

As an IT professional, I understand the need for quick and complete information, and this book gives it. The learners guide for beginners and the definitive guide for advanced users all in one package. Inovative, and thought inspiring, the theories in design and implimentaion are on the cutting edge of design concepts, even 6 moth after its release.

Although this book is rich with details, it is too terse to be considered comprehensive. The ideal audience, in my opinion, consists of (1) project managers who will be tasked with planning these systems, (2) development managers who need to organize their resources to produce systems that are rapidly evolving even before the first line of code is written, and (3) production support, which will be taking highly dynamic systems into production.

One thing stands out about this book - it begins with business requirements and makes them a central theme of the Internet Commerce Development Methodology (ICDM), which is the author's approach to e-commerce systems development. The ICDM is the heart of this book. It's a methodology that successfully marries business analysis and development, and also defines how the project should be organized. It's a top-down approach with feasibility analysis and strategy at the top. The next layer in ICDM is the process level, which is imperative for e-commerce initiatives, which will certainly change business processes. This layer also requires a feasibility analysis, as well as process change, reengineering and transformation steps. Next is the meta-development strategy that encompasses your component strategy, functional requirements, architecture, design and implementation. Each element requires a feasibility analysis. Stepping back and viewing the ICDM as a whole it looks a lot like a spiral life cycle approach. I am not sure that is the author's intent, but it can be construed as such, especially if you view the feasibility analyses checkpoints as risk assessments as well.

The entire process is evolutionary, and therefore the approach supports incremental delivery and implementation. In many respects it resembles the Rational Unified Process and could be easily aligned to a project that used that approach in e-commerce development. Even of you are locked into a different methodology I strongly recommend this book because it has some excellent practices and will give you ideas that can be seamlessly incorporated into your approach.

Practitioners and students have been waiting for a book such as this to come along. In reality there is very little in the way of methodological help guiding the development of information systems for conducting web commerce. This book doesn't disregard the lessons learned from the evolution of systems development but it introduces the key issues throughout the lifecycle that differentiate the complexities of web systems from their traditional counterparts.

This book provides the information needed to develop Web Systems in an organisational setting. It takes you through all the components of development with an innovative approach called ICDM. The methods have helped me greatly at work in my role as a Web developer.

Lest make things clear form the start, I am from a beautifully country (Chile) that have over 90% of students in voucher schools, some private, some municipal, the proportion in Municipal schools is going down year to year, parents are moving to private-held schools, and municipal students numbers goes down, from overt 75% some years ago to below 50% now, and continues to shrink. It looks like that parents, if they have the possibility; they move to better-performing schools.

The simple power behind the general success of U.S. is the ability (and liberty) of persons to walk-out and obtain the service elsewhere, it puzzled me that a so simple, and sensible, idea has a significant part of the educators against it. When people spoke of liberty, in general, is fine, when people spoke of liberty to choose school is bad.

This is why I bought this book; I like to understand the position of anti-vouchers, maybe I got convinced, but I don't, the book is a compelling list of thinks going bad in municipal school today, and shows a supposed path to improve things, by developing an action plan to have better municipal schools, the tool to convince of the necessity of change is fear, fear that if they don't improve the vouchers are coming!

The book is a starling list of things that make for underperforming municipal schools, from School boards managed by conflicting interest groups, to curricula reform (that that author suggests is not working)and a hope that this time they have a working plan to improve municipal schools, the necessity of making system changes, but the author also recognizes than this are the kind of changes more difficult to obtain. The chapter "Changing the system" start with along list of difficulties to change, including to assess than "Structural changes that is not supported by cultural changes will eventually overwhelmed by the culture" after such strong expression one a the right to think that Mr. Schlechty is on a vain trail, as cultural changes are the most difficult to do.

Well, they have plenty of time to try this path or another or another, in the mean time they will keep children chained to his local municipal school, simply, by negating the possibility that they move with is tax money elsewhere.

Inventing Better Schools provides a rare opportunity for school administrators to to 'look over the shoulder' of a successful practitioner of educational reform.

Schlechty (pronounced Schlek-ty) predicates the teaching program on the belief that it is the teachers' jobs to actually ENGAGE students in meaningful learning. A radical idea!

He states: "Viewing students as a customer places the the school in the position of accepting the proposition that the school's obligation is to invent work sufficiently attractive that the students engarge in it voluntarily. (Coercion may gain compliance, but it does not produce engagement and commitment.

It is the obligation of the school and the teacher to invent work that attracts the attention and compels the energy of students, for it is in inventing products that customers will buy that a customer- focused business creates the conditions of its own survival."

Across the world the public school system is under threat and Phil Schlechty provides the most practical scenario for its survival that I have read.

** We are starting a school administrators' reading group/ discussion forum in our district and this text is our starting point. Over 30 principals nominated to be in this program in two days.

First and foremost this book is so well organized it made it a pleasure to read. Schlechty clearly outlines and summarizes all 12 chapters in the Preface. Don't miss it! This book is not a light topic ~ so focusing the reader where the author was headed was greatly appreciated.

Schlechty claims that American public schools are in urgent need for dramatic improvement or they take the risk of becoming extinct. And the key to improving the schools is the quality of the work students are provided. Students need to be engaged in their learning and their work should reflect relevance to their needs to become socially and academically prepared for the next century. He says all students are entitled to a high quality of education. I couldn't agree more!

Here are two other aspects that I found powerful about this book (besides the organization style). 1) Schlechty clearly states what he perceives the problem is with American public schools and how he came to that conclusion and 2) he then provides the reader with an aggressive cookbook style solution to the problem (the action plan).

The author lives up to the title, Inventing Better Schools An Action Plan for Educational Reform.

I recommend this book to anyone who cares about our children's future: parents, students, educators, administrators, community leaders, superintendents, business leaders, etc. because it takes ALL of US to make the changes needed to Invent Better Schools and this book is a great starting point.

Inventing Better Schools, An Action Plan for Educational Reform, by Phillip C. Schlechty, is a must read for those interested in educational reform in the public schools including teachers, administrators, schools boards, and local educational leaders. Any district wishing to make systemic changes may wish to use this book to provide a common starting point for reform dialogue.

Schlechty presents his case as to the urgent need for public school reform and challenges educators to redefine what their role is in providing quality education for students. His two basic tenants for the urgent need for reform is the fear that public education could be lost to a voucher system and the increased need for people to have adaptive skills to be successful in an information based society.

The starting point for educational reform is the basic mission of schooling. Schlechty states, "The aim of schooling is an educated citizenry, but the core business of schooling is engaging students in work that results in their learning what they need to learn to be viewed as well educated in American society (page 31)." In his philosophy, if schools are looked at as a business, students are the primary customers.

Inventing Better Schools emphasizes that reform efforts in the past fail because the changes are not embodied by the whole organization and the culture that surrounds the schools. All stakeholders need to be involved in the reform process. To enable systemic change, four key questions need to be answered before by educational leaders:
1. Why is change needed?
2. What kind of change is needed and what will it mean for us when the change comes about?
3. Is what we are being asked to do really possible? Has it been done before? By whom? Can we see it in practice?
4. How do we do it? What skills do we need and how will they be developed (page 208)?
In the appendix, two districts provide examples of what goals and action plans they have by answering key questions like the ones above.

Take the time to read Inventing Better Schools, An Action Plan for Educational Reform before spending enormous amounts of energy on efforts that may only have limited lasting impact on education. Schlechty sums up his mission when he writes, "...great leaders are needed if real change is to occur. My hope is that this book will find such leaders and that they will find this book useful (page 185)."

Few authors have been able to write a more practical and informative guide to reforming the American educational system than Phillip Schlecthy. He explains both the postive and negative aspects of education today and provides strategies for redesigning schools to become focused on producing high quality, engaging work for students. Thought-provoking questions are included as tools to help districts transform as well as cases studies which exemplify effective educational reform. Inventing Better Schools is revolutionary, thorough and bound to make an impact on anyone who is serious about revitalizing American schools