This week's Nonfiction November Prompt:
Three ways to join in this week! You can share 3 or more books on a single topic that you’ve read and can recommend (be the expert); you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you’ve been dying to read (ask the expert); or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).
Head on over to Katie at Doing Dewey to read some of the other posts.
As a teacher librarian I love books about education. I'm sharing a few that specifically deal with college admissions and education in our country.
Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America by Helen Thorpe is not entirely focused on education, but it does show how the four teenagers in this book are limited in their post high school choices because of some immigration issues they face. Teaching in a district with a large immigrant population, I can see firsthand how our students are affected. Some of it is heartbreaking, but I truly enjoyed every page of this book.
The Smartest Kids In the World And How They Got This Way by Amanda Ripley - show three different education systems: Finland, South Korea and Poland. These systems are different from each other - and different from our system in the US. This book provides so much to discuss....and as a teacher I love this topic and want to talk about it with everyone.
The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins provides an in-depth look at several high schoolers who are all over-extended and wanting to get in to their first choice colleges. The high expectations are self inflicted in some cases but all of the students featured in this book are interesting and it was easy to root for them and hope they achieved their dreams.
The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes Or Breaks Us by Paul Tough is my current read and I fell in love with it from the first page. My oldest daughter is looking at colleges for next year and this one is interesting on a personal level for that reason. My husband and I have long believed that our college taught us both so much - more than can adequately be conveyed in a diploma - and this book (so far) does much to back that up.
So, I'm not an expert, but I if you are looking to learn more about education, these four books won't disappoint. And if you have a book about education not mentioned here, please feel free to leave me a comment. I love adding to my TBR!
4 comments:
I love reading about education and schools. Here are some of my favorites: Whatever It Takes by Paul Tough; Relentless Pursuit by Donna Foote; School of Dreams by Edward Hume; Play by Stuart Brown; Tested by Linda Perlstein; Saving the School by Michael Brick; Improbable Scholars by David Kirp; Raising the Curve by Ron Berler; The Class by Heather Tesoriero; Work Hard, Be Nice by Jay Mathew.
B19 has just finished his first year at uni (the Aussie school year runs with the calendar) and we've been so impressed by how much he has matured this year. It's such a great way to leave home. Those three years become such a great foundational time for becoming an adult. Three years to practice adulting with the safety net of coming home again every semester break.
I could recommend lots of Australian education books, but they probably have very little relevance for the US system.
Our (Australian) school system is quite different from yours and it’s not really a topic published a lot outside of academic circles. When it is it tends to focus on high school rather than university. You might be interested in Free Schools by David Gillespie, or Teacher by Gabbie Stroud. I have a Bachelor of Education but haven’t worked as a teacher for some time.
Thanks for sharing your recommendations
I thought Just Like Us was a really important read. Thanks for the recommendations on a fascinating topic!
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