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Yan Wing pcn622fc00 — This is a classic read. It is one of those stories that paints perfectly the setting in which it inhabits. Atticus Finch is one of the most humane characters I have encountered in literature. This book should be mandatory for all sixth graders to read, but it can be enjoyed by anyone.

Mariana Guilarducci mariguilarducci — I love, love, love this book. I have the sequel, Roads to Qoz, but have not had time to start reading it. Will savor the sequel's read, though.

Yuran R nedoperepib217 — While this book may suffer at times from the fact that Steven Brill is covering a lot of developments in many parts of the country, and therefore doesn’t always have the in-depth knowledge I might wish, I found it to be substantially accurate. For me, it was also riveting, inspirational, and at times, deeply depressing. Five years ago I joined a local philanthropic group that decided to focus on education in our city of Los Angeles. We started by supporting a few charter schools. (We all give a bit of money and then help on a volunteer basis according to our abilities.) That is when I started realizing just how abysmal the education situation was, both in Los Angeles and in the rest of the country. At the same time, I began spending time in the classroom of a talented public (but not charter) school teacher who teaches in a poor community and witnessing how much his kids improved after just one year under his tutelage. So I asked myself: if poor second-language kids with all the usual baggage of fatherless families, alcoholism and attendant dysfunctionality can do this well, why can’t all poor kids? Why are public school kids either not graduating, or graduating functionally illiterate and with terrible math/science skills? I came to the same conclusions as Steven Brill, and every word he wrote was a stab to my already discouraged heart. Not that there aren’t wins; but the entire system of unions (more about that later) bureaucracies, politicians, vendors, etc., is so entrenched and has such a powerfully effective lobby, that trying to change it is like David going up against Goliath, only with the opposite result. So back to the unions: it was a real shock to me to discover that the teachers unions were not a force for improving teaching quality for kids, but an organization bent on obtaining the best packages for themselves, even if it meant standing foursquare against firing teachers who weren’t effective (not to mention abusers and pedophiles.) Also, that because they were negotiating with the very Democratic politicians they support with money and manpower, they got virtually everything they wanted. In other words, there was absolutely no balance. Brill writes: “From 1989 through 2010, the NEA and the AFT together contributed 60.7 million to candidates for federal office, far more than any other union, business, or interest group. With 95% of it going to Democrats, their impact on the party was in a class by itself.” It’s as if the automobile unions negotiating with the managers at GM were also responsible for paying the managers’ salaries, and firing them if they didn’t give them everything they wanted! This began to seem completely Kafka-esque, and yet it is the situation that exists currently. As Brill quotes Joel Klein throughout this book: “you can’t make some of this s---- up.” And I am a longtime Democrat. I always thought of myself as a “yellow dog” Democrat. So, my five cents is that this book is an accurate representation of the education situation in this country. Though as I said, when Brill got to Los Angeles, which I know well, I found myself feeling that his knowledge was a bit too superficial to give a total picture. He applauds the efforts of Mayor Villaraigosa, which have been pretty puny (though at least he has spoken up) and lauds Superintendent Deasy as the coming of a new day (hasn’t happened so far, though Deasy’s sympathies are clearly with the reformers.) He also doesn’t mention that Villaraigosa’s efforts to take over the schools, Bloomberg-style, were undercut by the fact that soon after he was elected it came out he’d had a recent affair, thus tarnishing his reputation in a way from which it never recovered. (Why do politicians do these things if they “care” so much about making a difference??) So Brill’s hopefulness is a bit more wishful thinking than I’d like. (Although by the end, a dose of reality seems to have set in when he concludes the only answer is to find a way to deal with the teachers unions–though how you can do that when you are negotiating with the very people who control your job prospects, I don’t know.) Perhaps the only answer is to keep chipping away, and know that only by fighting back is there hope. Two diametrically opposed quotes come to mind: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” F Scott Fitzgerald. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead Pick? The lady or the tiger?

Rui Morais _ui_orais — Talk about formative literature of my teenage years. Thank you, Judy Blume, for writing books like this.

Karolina Sajetaite sajetaite — I find myself not having a lot to say about this book. I enjoyed the story, although it was a little predictable (thanks, back-of-the-book spoilers). It was written in an omniscient third-person with an almost Biblical sense of style, which reminded me of Hart's Hope, although that book was the imitation of A Wizard of Earthsea rather than the other way around. One thing: this book handled magic pretty much exactly the way that I like magic handled. It was common, and powerful, but mysterious and ill-defined. The only common factor to most magic seemed to be the use of True Names to exert power over material and spiritual forces, but there was nothing so prosaic as spells or (heaven forbid) exhaustive rules. To me, this feels much more ominous and mysterious and magical than, say, the way that Brandon Sanderson handles magic. It doesn't feel so deterministic. I'm glad to have finally read an Earthsea novel. Le Guin totally deserves her reputation as an excellent writer, and the more of her work that I read the more I regret not reading it sooner.