historical account beyond high school
346822
This book is remarkable in bringing into focus things we all have thought about and never said. Especially for the archeologist in all of us, it opens a door. This small book is chock full of facts worthy of additional persuit...I highly reccommend it.  It is disheartening to know how little we all know. This will bring to the fore what you may not know.

Checked out at the library, I then had to order my own copy....had to own it.
3940198
I used this with second semester seniors at the high school where I teach.  Even after the Advanced Placement exam was behind us, the students still stayed focused.  Both the story and the way that it is told through letters really reaches out to readers.  Admittedly the girls in my class seemed more engaged than the boys, but even some of the guys enjoyed reading the letters aloud during class. I cannot think of a better way to learn some history.
169188
This memoir about a talented and intelligent young lady's transition from late teen age years to young adulthood opens another world beyond the direct experience of most, including this reader.  We are taken to and from Europe where we meet individuals who place high value on ideas and philosophy, where the author describes art, architecture and ambiance, and introduces the reader to individuals of another almost (as I see it) bygone high culture.  Among others, I was intrigued by the author's great uncle, Msgr. William A. Hemmick, the only American Canon of St. Peter's Basilica.  I'll say no more, but suggest one read the book.  The author uses contemporaneous diary entries coupled with the perspective of the well-educated and successful mature woman.  In this, the author succeeds.  The memoir is not in strict chronological order but arranged as one might remember long ago, which I found helpful.  The book held my attention due to the flow of the writing and my interest due to the subject matter.  The book is easily a one evening read and well worth the effort.
4814859
I assigned this book for summer reading.  I can write all sorts of lessons and do all sorts of activities to teach the Jim Crow Era, but this book did more to help my students understand the overt racism in America after the Civil War.  They have grown up in a time of multiculturalism and diversity.  The idea that students could be denied a proper education because of the color of their skin is a foreign idea.  Because this story is told from the perspective of someone their age, they approached this book differently.  They appreciated that it was not the usual history book, but a true story that grabbed their attention; they forgot they were learning about American History.  I highly recommend this book for all high school students.  Your students will thank you.
3850139
Interesting insight to a changing era in world history
2982799
Highly recommended for high-school age students. Well-written, full of literary devices, and gives the young person a sense of the psychology of warfare at the time. A good book for teaching American literature and history through the eyes and mind of those who lived it.
334209
"Wonderland is certainly an interesting book about one academic year at Pennsbury High School. Essentially the story has an underlying theme of preparation for the senior prom, but this book is more about the students at the high school than the actual prom. Pennsbury is well-known for the lavish prom they throw every year.

This account of the school year focuses on key students and their involvement with the school as they prepare to head off into the next stages of their lives. These students are your "token" students: the misunderstood high school quarterback whos parents want him to go to a big school on a football scholarship; the "pretty" girl with self-esteem issues; the audio-visual journalism student who is an outsider to everyone; and others. The highlight of this book is when these students have to start making decisions about whether to attend college or not and which college to attend. What is more important? A athletic scholarship or an academic scholarship?

Another aspect of this book that I truly enjoyed was that it was a look into a true middle-class school. The families are working-class families. Roughly half the parents went to college and roughly half did not. The students from Pennsbury high are clearly part of the next generation of college students: the Millenials. They are more connected, they work jobs to buy things, and are close with their parents. This book shows how students are when exiting high school and entering the next stage of their lives.

The biggest problems I have with this book is the lack of methodology. How did Bamberger get his information? From the two sentences in the epilogue I gather that he carried around a notepad and recorded interactions with the students. However, there is a lot in this book that I have a difficult time believing that he was present for. How did he know what exact conversation happened at 2 AM over a cell phone between two friends? Did he conduct interviews on a scheduled time frame? Bamberger gives no insight into how he collected his information, which, in my opinion, discredits the entire account.

I think Bamberger originally set out to create a landmark book about high school students and had to settle for this instead. If there was an introduction (or anything!) that explained what he was trying to achieve and the means in which he was attempting to accomplish this his book would be much better. As it is, it reads as a sitcom from cable television. However, some of the storylines are interesting, and most people will be able to relate to the characters in the book by virtue of having attended high school.
1755932
College admission has become a rite-of-passage for many American teenagers. The entire process is documented with a human touch in the Gatekeepers. The author followed several applicants and an admissions officer through the grueling process of assembling the Wesleyan class of 2004. The author details the lives of a half-dozen high school applicants and how emotionally taxing the college admissions process is for all sides.
The Gatekeepers provides quite a bit of insight into the admissions process. I was surprised to learn how personally admissions officers take the job of recruiting applicants they believe will impact their campus and how much they believe in their school. A good read to remember the college admissions process does not define a person.
3716616
I have almost finished reading this book.  It is a chronicle of the unraveling of the "old order" at the university that I served, including for half of the years covered here.  The author was also a student during those years and witnessed some of the developments he describes.  It is well resourced, with interviews of persons who were part of the events described and judicious use of the university archives and the student newspaper. The author also does a good job of connecting development at OSU with the larger cultural and political matters within which the university lived.  Considerable attention is paid to student government connections to these changes and less attention paid to faculty connections.

Shkurti later went on to serve in Vietnam and to serve the state of Ohio and the university at a high level.  His reputation as an excellent public servant is well-deserved.  He helped guide the university through some of the tough financial times that occurred well after the years covered in this book.
762798
This is the kind of book you want to have multiple copies of in the 3rd-5th grade classroom. Historical fiction--told from the perspective of a child, Margru (later known as Sarah Kinson) who was on the Amistad, the ship that was taken over by slaves in 1839, recaptured, and then landed in Connecticut. She was later freed by the Supreme Court and was able to return to her native Mende in Africa. There's a lot of potential for conversations ACROSS texts here--the author has embedded primary sources in this fictional account that can be used to think about what's in the narrative. ALSO, students can read another description (informational vs. fictional) of what happened with the Amistad and afterwards at links like http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/K... and then compare/contrast. I'm also wondering if it would be possible to read the letters Sarah Kinson wrote later when she was at Oberlin college - a primary source and firsthand account. In a short search, I could not find access to these...but this might be worthy of more searching.
636144
The real apeal of this book is not necesarily the story which most of us have heard before. But instead is the manor that it is presented and the context that it is set in. It puts it in an angle that we can all relate to not some distant scene thousands of miles from where we live now. I think this would be a great way to introduce an older teenager to what the holocaust was about, beyond what they learn in school
4884978
Not only will this keep your 8 - 13 reading to the very end they will also be learning what is was like to live in the middle ages! I could actually see this being used by homeschooling Mom's as an educational tool as there is a glossary at the end which gives the present day definition to the terms used in the book for those words back then.

Personally I thought it ended rather abruptly and I think the author should continue the story of this boy and girl who were never meant to even know each other-much less become friends. Gentry and peasants did not coexist back then! But extenuating circumstances made it feasible.

I believe your pre-teen and young teens will really enjoy this story!
4487406
This book was a life-changing experience for me. I read it on a whim 3 years ago, on an audio CD, and it has made all the difference. Before reading it I thought I was reasonably well-educated in American history; after all, I have a college degree and am reasonably well read. Listening to the book I learned two important things: American history is far more vibrant than I suspected, and the facts are much different than my high school history books led me to believe.

In the book, I learned the truth about the Reconstruction era which in high school was portrayed as the battle between the evil northern carpetbaggers and the noble southerners seeking to reclaim their birthright...not so! I found portraits of Helen Keller and Woodrow Wilson that were completely different from the pap I had carried in my head since high school. I understood for the first time the magnitude of the crimes we Americans committed against the native peoples living here when we arrived and later against many classes of immigrants, particularly the Chinese in the 19th century and the Japanese in the 20th.

In short, this book was written with people like me in mind: people who learned American history from high school textbooks containing watered down American mythology rather than the real American story with all its warts, triumphs and failures.

After finishing this book, I went back to school and have now taken 2 college-level American history classes, 2 African history classes and am poised to begin an Eastern Civilization sequence this fall. I've come very late to a basic understanding of history, and I owe it all to this book.
2794456
I'm not a fast reader, but I kept turning pages to find out what was happening next.  Also, I was never much interested in history in school learning facts and dates; but when it involves personal human deep-feeling happenings, I can get very engrossed.  This novel kept me very engrossed while I was learning about some history that I didn't learn in school.  I would recommend this book to others, from high school age on up to old age.  I'm among the old age group.  This book gets five stars from me!
69186
My relatively high rating is based largely on the fact that as a teenager 60 years ago, I remember reading about this man and several of his peers.  And so the book filled in the details that the sports pages of long ago could not do, unless you lived near Kenosha.  If I had a criticism, the book was rather heavy in detail of Wisconsin high school games, seasons, and personalities that would not ring a bell with a North Carolinian, and by comparison went through his pro career rather quickly.  The close look at his family life was appreciated, and the details of his puzzling relationship with Weeb Eubank was something new to me.
2791588
For Junior High, Middle School or High School Students interested in European history, this is an excellent book about the period of internal struggles between the major ethnic groups in Yugoslavia.  The writing style is easy to follow and understand for someone in the 8th grade or older.  The reader can empathize with the characters and feel raw emotion from the the characters' experiences.  For an adult, this book is a quick read.  Given some of the complex issues, I would not personally recommend this book unless your child has some degree of maturity.  This would make a great book for standard curriculum, or a historical perspective.

Highly recommend this book.
210625
Posner profiles the Open School in Jefferson County, CO, an alternative school founded in the early 1970s which has had a remarkable history of success (according to the unabashedly positive author, a former teacher there who's now spreading the word as an author & consultant). Open School philosophy places a strong emphasis on individualized personal learning plans, an advisor system, student-designed projects, and many off-campus trips. School is run democratically, by the students; governance of the school is a major venue for learning. Got the impression that students actively support each other as they learn and grow together (this kind of positive, mutually-supporting culture is rarely present in American high schools).

1 important element of the Open School is the "Walkabout" program which requires students to undertake 6 Passages which involved self-designed projects in 6 areas: Adventure; Career exploration; Creativity; Global awareness; Logical inquiry; and Practical skills.

There are 5 goals for students -
* Rediscover the joy of learning
* Engage in the search for meaning in your life
* Adapt to the world that is
* Prepare for the world that might be
* Help create the world that ought to be

And 3 dimensions the school helps each student work on: personal, social & intellectual.

A couple reservations re the author's methodology - 1st, the school is pre-K-12 but the book seems to focus mostly on the high school. 2nd, this account is based on surveys of alumni + interviews with them (431 responses which is about 43% of alumni from 1976-2002) - draws extensively on material from these surveys; responses of the alumni who responded were mostly positive but there is no way to know if respondents were representative of all alumni - I found myself wondering at times.

My evaluation - this book got me thinking about the basic issue of what school, especially at the secondary level, ought to be about. The answer should be, preparing students for life. Find myself agreeing pretty wholeheartedly with the author, that something has been lost in the NCLB era as schools focus more and more intensively on getting basic reading & math skills across. ("With all the talk about school accountability these days, no one seems to be asking about a student's accountability to herself and her responsibility for her own education. And who is accountable to the individual student?")