Smart Kids, Bad Schools

I'm a sucker for cheap books. I figure that for $2 or less any book that looks interesting to me is worth picking up. Saves me a trip to the library and potential fines, and if it's any good, I can hold on to it. Sometimes, particularly when I find the book used from Half Price Books, a yard sale, or a library sale, I find a gem. Usually, though, the books range from decent (but not worth rereading) to awful. I found this book for $1 at Big Lots and figured it was worth reading, given my profession.

Brian Crosby has given a lot of thought to the educational system. He obviously isn't happy with how it works and its growing failures. He has put all of his ideas together to form this book: Smart Kids, Bad Schools: 38 Ways to Save America's Future. To Crosby, nothing is sacred. In order to fix America's school system, we need to look at every aspect of education and see if it needs reworked. He calls for radical transformation rather than reformation: a whole new system instead of the same system with some tweaks. He's got 38 propositions for this transformation.

Crosby has developed a fairly comprehensive plan for educational transformation. I appreciate the level of thought he gave this project and commend him for his thouroughness and his transparency. He's honest, somewhat consistent, willing to look at any and every aspect of education.

Unfortunately, though, Crosby's thoroughness stops at research. Don't waste your time looking for footnotes, references, or a bibliography. If he doesn't mention a source then it's just a reflection of his thoughts and observations. In about half of the chapters it's clear that he's had some experiences that he's unhappy with and he's basically just venting. That becomes grating to read, even if the point resonates with the reader.

Some highlights from his points (to me, at least):
- Lengthen the school year and the school day
- Administration needs to treat teachers with professional respect (see tangent below)
- Abolish homework so kids can be kids
- Provide healthy and appealing lunches
- Abolish teacher unions
- Focus on efficient spending rather than looking for increased funding

Some really awful suggestions:
- Cut Title 1 and Special Education spending (he makes a terrible argument, basically stop punishing the many to benefit the few)
- Give better pay and benefits to Secondary Education teachers because their job is SO much harder than Elementary (what??? many secondary teachers only have to plan for a couple of classes and have multiple prep periods, while Elementary teachers teach almost all day and teach 4-5 different subjects...yes secondary material is harder and teachers do have more students, but they are equal in difficulty - one is not tougher than the other!)
- Make parents pay for books and supplies and charge a small tuition ($200) for public schools (what about families that are struggling to put food on the table?)

Crosby has some good suggestions, but they are weakened by minimal research (most of which comes from Time, newspapers, and Education Weekly) and often accompanied by whining. It's hard for me to feel bad when he complains about having to stay at work until almost 5:00 when his school has staff meetings. My school's staff meetings run until 5, and it's not terribly uncommon for me to stay that late, although lately I've been going in earlier so I can leave a bit earlier. I also can't feel all that bad when he complains about "only" having 2 prep periods per day.

These weakened good points, in addition to some really poorly thought out terrible points make for a book that certainly has potential, and certainly could act as a good discussion starter, but ultimately isn't worth the time or effort to fully read. If you can find it for super-cheap, it might be worth reading through the table of contents and picking and choosing whichever sections interest you to read.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

61/100 books, still well on track