Archive for the ‘Book Summaries’ Category

Do You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me? A Student’s Perspective by Stephen G. Peters (©2006, The Peters Group Foundation: Orangeburg, SC.) provides insight from students he gathered during extensive interviews and uses this perspective to let teachers know what they may have missed in college. His goal is to help teachers learn how to care for all students by listening with all their hearts to the voices of students. Click the icon at the bottom of any page to purchase this fine book.

Stephen G. Peters

• Stephen has been an educator for more than 25 years with experience as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and director of secondary education. He is founder of The Gentleman’s Club, a program that seeks to change attitudes and behaviors of at-risk and borderline males and The Ladies Club that aims to empower girls to be their own best friends and inspire them to discover and be proud of who they are. He is also a partner at CasseNEX, a leader in online course design and delivery. For more on his work check his website.

It’s All About Relationships

• Stephen believes that the solutions to many education problems reside within the hearts and minds of the students themselves and that we all lose when we silence or ignore their voices. It’s the special relationships between students, teachers, and administrators that are the keys that unlock the door to success and excellence in any school. Part 1 features interview transcripts from four selected students.

Keisha

• Most students want to learn. We have a whole lot to deal with outside of school and we need respect, structure, and consistency. Her favorite teacher told the class on the first day that they all had A’s and that motivated her to work to keep it. It was her first A. As a 9th grader she finds that many teachers don’t seem to care. The best teachers treat you with respect and work hard to make lessons interesting.

Marvin

• Marvin’s favorite teacher told him he was smarter than he thought he was and made learning relevant and meaningful. She was a master at forming positive relationships with her students and never wrote discipline referrals. The other key influence in Marvin’s life was his coach. The relationship was so strong that the coach felt like a family member and Marvin worked hard to meet the coaches expectations. He was impressed when one teacher showed up at one of his football games. That made him want to work to pass her course. He also appreciates teachers who stay late to help kids and go out of their way to do unexpected acts of kindness. He doesn’t like the administrators as he has the sense that they don’t like him.

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Better Than College: How to Build a Better Life Without a Four-Year Degree by Blake Boles (Copyright © 2012 by Blake Boles) offers the thesis that you can skip four-year college and still get a higher education. This may seem nuts, but spend a few moments considering the propositions, and you’ll begin to see why Zero Tuition College (ZTC) holds just as much life-changing potential as traditional college. Please click on the icon at the bottom of any page to purchase this outstanding book.

Blake Boles

• After two years as an astrophysics major at US Berkley, Blake convinced the school to let him design his own alternative education major. Two years later, he realized that he didn’t need school at all to do what he had just accomplished. Unfortunately, not every college would allow him to do what he did. He has since met many young adults who did everything that he did—learning deeply, developing mastery, becoming exposed to new fields, adventuring, building work experience, and following their passions—without the college price tag..

What is a Higher Education?

• When the price of oil rises, we look more seriously at alternative energy. When a business raises its prices, we consider different ways that we could obtain the same goods or services. But even though the price of college has skyrocketed, we still flood its gates. Why? A college degree proves that you can survive four years. It’s a piece of paper that says, I followed a prescribed path. A higher education, though, is first and foremost the capacity to self-direct your life. Someone who has a higher education can define her own vision of success and pursue it, even in the face of difficulty. A college degree does not guarantee a higher education.

The Alternative

• Instead of following someone else’s curriculum, self-directed learners begin by asking themselves what fascinates and drives them. Their journey begins—and ends—with self-knowledge. Instead of taking full-time classes, self-directed learners give themselves assignments that they find interesting, eye-opening, and challenging. They start businesses, find internships, travel the world, read and write about things that fascinate them, and work for organizations they admire. Instead of working on homework, papers, and presentations destined to be seen once and tossed into a trash can, self-directed learners turn much of their hard work into useful products for other people.

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