Ward Books

Dr. Ward authors an excellent vision that translates the best of abstract educational-change theories into a concrete prescription to improve school facilities, student achievement, and fiscal efficiency. Improving Achievement in Low-Performing Schools is an excellent guide to turn a district that is culturally, academically, financially, and technologically bankrupt into a high-performance urban learning organization. The research based `key results' discussed in the book are concisely represented in checklists that may be immediately utilized by district and site administrators. The authors describe how urban school leaders can move beyond compliance to the realm of quality instruction and significantly more students being accepted into prestigious universities. In sum, this book should be required reading for all educational policymakers, school district administrators, and principals.

Ably edited by Mary Ann Burke, Improving Achievement In Low-Performing Schools: Key Results For School Leaders by academician Randolph E. Ward is a practical and professional guideline especially for teachers, and education professionals concerning innovative management practices to improve low performance in multi-stressed schools. Chapters focus upon how to improve student achievement in core subjects, creating safe, clean, and secure facilities, forging stronger links with parents and the community, raising the level of management effectiveness and accountability, and much more. Sample checklists illustrate the key principles outlined for dynamically improving the conditions and results of an educational institution.

I believe Leonard Swidler's book, Jesus Was A Feminist, is the Most Empowering book ever written for women! Swidler clearly shows not only how much Jesus loved women, but also how very valuable their witness has been to Christianity. Jesus came for "the poor, the broken hearted, the captives, the blind, the marginal and the oppressed." On every page Jesus defended women, honored them, healed them, threw away the taboos and fought for their equality with men. Swidler analyzes how Jesus treated each woman with dignity, especially giving them a voice. Without women's telling and retelling their stories, we would not have much in our gospels. We would still not know that He rose from the dead if they had remained silent.

After reading God's Word to Women, God was showing me that much is misinterpreted / slanted. I was getting discouraged at the general lack of study and concern for the Word from the pulpit. It seemed like every Mother's Day I had to sit through yet another sermon about how women have to submit, and Easter was always about Peter. We were either invisible, inferior or unclean. I eventually slowed down in going to church, and had almost stopped reading my bible. I had many questions which no man could answer but I knew God was bigger than patriarchal churches.

God has always loved women and then Jesus showed it. He chose to reveal the most profound information only to women; He chose only women to be the first witnesses to His Resurrection. You will be surprised to find out how extremely valuable Mary Magdalene was, and that parts of the gospels were written, yes, by women! Swidler explains the problem passages, and shows that Jesus did not reject divorce and remarriage. I just weep when I think of Jesus' love for women and how it has been soooo overlooked and minimized. Jesus was a feminist; He did more for women than we have been taught. This is one book which cannot sit on the book shelf; a precious pearl, it must be passed around. I totally love this book. I believe it is the Best Book in the world! Adele Hebert

Reviewed by Linda Benninghoff for Reader Views (11/07)

In "Jesus Was a Feminist," Leonard Swidler makes the case that Jesus respected, cared for and even advocated for the rights of women, not in the sense of Betty Freidan, but in the highly personal relationships he formed and the subtle societal changes he was able to bring about through them.

Swidler discusses the times in which Jesus lived, and states that in Palestine women did not have many rights and their status was not high. Although men could divorce, women could not divorce their husbands. The woman taken in adultery was about to be stoned to death. Prostitutes were pariahs. Widows were viewed as worthless because their husbands, who conferred worth on them, were dead.

Jesus was kind to widows. He felt men should not be able to divorce and gave equal rights in marriage to women. He befriended Mary Magdalene, sister to Lazarus. One of the non-canonical gospels even suggests he kissed her on the mouth.

In fact, Swidler goes on to suggest that two of the gospels had as their major source proto-gospels written by women. Mary, Jesus' mother, was probably the source for Luke, with its numerous references to women. The source for John, the book suggests, was written by Mary Magdalene, who was the beloved disciple.

The book "Jesus Was a Feminist" makes a convincing case for Jesus' feminism. According to Swidler, the church as we know it couldn't have come into being without women leaders at its beginning. A well-researched, illuminating book, it asks, is our feminism today as deep as his?

The water color paintings in this book invite you to enter into a place that we seldom slow down enough for. They inspire creative possibilities and motivate you to pick up what ever tool is your favorite for expression (pen, paintbrush, computer,needle work etc.). Doris Klein accompanies her paintings with poetic descriptions of the process in birthing the works. They are a window into the way this artist creates and an opportunity for new artists to explore their creativity.

If you are drawn to the colors on the front of this book, you will love the inside. This is such a different book, gentle, but powerful with beautiful images, and easy-to-read text suggesting thoughts and activities to enjoy and delve into the colors and discover your own images. It's really hard to describe how effective Doris Klein is at engaging you into this imagery of life and spirit. I love beautiful things, but do not consider myself artistic at all unless you count coloring books. Doris Klein got me to get pastels and paper and create my own images just for the joy of it because her images were so wonderful!
This book is worth every penny.

Great book for kids. I got this for my daughter who didn't know how to jump her horse. The book helped her a lot. Easy to read, has perfect instuctions. Book in new condition. Great buy.

this book is a great refrence and covers all aspects of learning to jump safely. it has lots of great pictures and illustrations and has excercizes and courses you can try at home. you can learn about showing, cross country and even teaching your green horse to jump and solving common issues. a great all around jumping book that is even perfect for teens and adults- not just kids! i strongly reccomend it.

Absolutely fantastic book. I use grid work with all my horses and this book definitely has the answer to 99% of most problems. Easy format to read and understand, excellent illustrations, A Keeper! I will not lend out this book, it is too important to me!

This book is excellent for anyone that has a problem with their horse jumping, whether in competition or at home or pony club. It gives detailed information, photos and also grid layout for almost every issue you may ever have with your horse.

Plus there are excellent tips on how to make your jump off fast and accurate - who would not want that in a competition! Winners are grinners.

This book is also a must for any SJ/XC instructor - Highly recommended!

Jenna

Order through Amazon.Com, in paperback reprinted edition, from Business Owner Resources.

Prof. John Ward is a top writer in the field, and this is a classic. Anyone who is interested by this fascinating subject should read this.

A warm multicultural book, that gives an enlightining look at the traditional hand weaving of the Kente Cloth. The book is an exciting celebration of culture by the Ashante people of Ghana and the Ewe of Ghana and Togo. The steady rhythum of rhyming text along with its bright and colorful illustrations are sure to attract the attention of young readers. As an educator I would use this book to introduce colors and weaving activities to young children. The use of rhyme is a great springboard for strenghthening students phonemic awarness. I would give this book 5 stars.

It is easy to read with very beautiful colors. I have three Ewe students from Togo and am hard pressed to find books to reflect their culture. I'm sure that the Ewe in Ghana and Togo are related and my students will be able see some of their culture reflected in the book. Thanks Deborah!

This is one of the best books on needlepoint patterns. The patterns are large, full color and easy to read. The instructions are easy to follow and there is additional information in the last chapter about needlepoint. The designs based on Kilim carpets and rugs are stunning! If you have any interest in needlepoint rugs this book is must have for your library.

The instructions for the 25 projects are well written and illustrated for the beginner as well as those how have done needlepoint for years. The color photographs are of high quality, making the finished projects extremely enticing to make. Each project not only has a description of the item, but also a well written brief history of the origin of the specific item to be stitched. The color charts was well illustrated and easy to follow. Thirteen pages are dedicated to materials and techniques from how to make the first needlepoint stitch to framing, hanging, finishing, making knotted fringes and tassels. This area of the book is a Big Plus! One last comment, This is truly a great needlepoint book!

There are plenty of photography books that instruct on technique. There are fewer showing how technique can be used to disclose vision. Fewer still are those showing how to develop vision. David Ward's first book,"Landscape Within: Insights and Inspirations for Photographers", is a part of this latter group.

Now Ward has returned with further ruminations upon this topic. Although Ward is primarily a landscape photographer, emphasizing the intimate landscape, all photographers can benefit from reading his books. Like the first book, this one consists of a portfolio of Ward's photographs, which, while related to the essays, illustrate his points generally, rather then being tied to any specific point. Ward says the essays illustrate what he considers to be the three essential elements of his work: simplicity, mystery and beauty. The fourth essay, called "Questions or Answers", suggests that there are two different types of photographs (or perhaps photographers - I'm not sure): Those that raise questions and those that provide answers. Ward also provides useful technical data on his pictures, and to appease some critics, but not me, information on where photographs were taken.

Ward's pictures are magnificent. His essays proved thought-provoking and, sometimes, troubling.

In the simplicity essay, he urges the importance of simplification to the photographer; most thoughtful photographers will agree with him. The second essay, which I found the most interesting, averred that he sought to provide an air of mystery in his work through the manipulation of scale, spatial ambiguity, lighting and incongruity. Hopefully, after perusing this chapter, one will explore one's own work but I wish there had been even more discussion of each of these topics. I do admit to wondering why Ward limited ambiguity to spatial relationships, but on the other hand he stimulated me to consider this issue and I expect that if he succeeds in provoking introspection, the essay will have achieved its goal.

I was quite disturbed by the chapter on beauty. Even though he was no more successful in defining beauty than Hume or Kant or Hegel (I reread their work in "Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts (2nd Edition)" edited by David Goldblatt and Lee Brown) I was most disappointed by his attack on post-modernist photographers, especially his singling out of Andreas Gursky, one of the most accessible of these artists. While I am not a fan of the post-modernists, I believe that photographers can expand their boundaries by trying to push beyond their own genre, rather then rejecting others that do not conform to their own internal model and expectations. To fail to do so is to relegate one's self to taking the same pictures, over and over.

I found this attack particularly surprising in light of Ward's assertion in the final essay that we grow the most as photographers and human beings when we make difficult picture with which the viewer (and perhaps the artist) are required to grapple. (Those are my words, not Ward's)

If one has to choose between "Landscape Within" and "Landscape Beyond" I would recommend the former. But since I believe that the artist in us will be continually challenged to better his or her work by thinking about and confronting it, I see no reason why the serious photographer should not read both.

David Ward's work has appeared in a number of books available on Amazon, but this one, and his previous "Landscape Within" are the only two soley of his work. Both are dedicated to understanding the internal and external motivations of nature/landscape photographers. Of course the images are exciting, but so is the discussion; not the common fare of f/stops and shutter speeds. Along with Freeman Patterson, David Ward seems to be the only other photographer that believes these ideas are as important, perhaps more important, than the technology.

This is an extraordinary book. It covers so much and pushes the reader to a deeper understanding of the creative process.

Even though this book has weaknesses, I feel that it's an important book for any advanced landscape photographer to read, and perhaps other advanced photographers as well.

The book has two different parts that are only vaguely related. One part is a collection of Ward's landscape photographs. The other is a philosophical examination of creativity and vision in landscape photography. It is this series of essays that I find most intriguing.

The author initially discusses the nature of photographs; that they are not real and that they capture time. He suggest that while most landscape photographers are interested in the grand vistas, most might be better served by concentrating on the intimate landscape because there are more opportunities there for discovery. He also suggest that one of the best procedures one can follow in landscape photography is to go slowly and delay taking the photograph as long as possible to let your vision crystallize. Eventually the author takes a semiotic approach to landscape photography. (Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols as means of communication.) Ward notes the importance of realizing both the connotation and denotation of photographs as signs or symbols. Along the way, Ward provides a history of landscape photography, with particular emphasis on developments relating to creativity and vision.

One of the main problems of Ward's essays is that they never do reveal to us what the nature of photographic vision and creativity is. That may be because this is something unknowable and ineffable. Yet thinking around the edges of these profound ideas may help the photographer to develop them, and that makes this book worth reading.

It's a sign of the difficulty of the subject that I often felt Ward had not made the right choices in the design of his book such as leaving the discussion of how we perceive things to the last rather then presenting it in the beginning of the book.

Turning to Ward's pictures, which are scattered throughout the book, they are terrific. They demonstrate a vision and beauty we could all emulate. I have said elsewhere that editors feel that books of great pictures do not sell, and so they ask great photographers to write "how to" books. That conclusion was too focused. Books of great pictures do sell, provided that the pictures tell a story, or that there is a synergistic effect in the way that the pictures are presented. But Ward seems to reject that approach. Although quotes from the text appear alongside his pictures, the pictures do not illustrate the text, except in the broadest possible way. And Ward refuses to provide technical data on his pictures, saying this is a "why book", not a "how to book". He seems to be challenging the reader to construct his or her own book!

The bottom line on this book is that there seems to be no silver bullet for creativity and vision. Perhaps the author should have called this a workbook, because even after reading the stimulating ideas, one will have to do plenty of psychological and, dare I say, spiritual work to develop the landscape within.