Week 26: The Making of Americans and Unseen Academicals

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The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools, by E. D. Hirsch

Hirsch is a famous critic of American educational practices and promoter of common standards. I've already reviewed his older book The Schools We Need; this is a newer book with quite a lot of the same message, but shorter and much easier to get through. Here, Hirsch concentrates on the development of American citizens, and how a common curriculum would promote egalitarian schools and a stronger public culture. I agree with much of his message, so I haven't got a whole lot to argue with here.



Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett

This must be something like number 35 in the Discworld series, but Pterry is still going pretty strong. Discworld started off as funny fantasy, poking a bit of fun at the standard tropes, and has matured into social satire that is both entertaining and insightful. Here's hoping that Discworld will continue as long as possible.



And, this marks the halfway point in the 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge! So far, I've put about 40 books up here.

Comments

  1. laughinglioness.lisa@gmail.comJune 27, 2010 at 3:24 PM

    These both look interesting. I'll be adding them to my list. Thanks for the recommendations = )!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Leslie June 28, 2010 at 9:55 AM

    You are really grooving through this challenge! I'm impressed. You've read some interesting book, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JeanJune 28, 2010 at 1:08 PM

    I read an awful lot anyway. This has really helped me to concentrate on reading more good stuff, though, which has been great.

    ReplyDelete

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