Just over 100 years ago Columbia’s John Erskine started a General Honors program that was the precursor of the Great Books programs popularized by his student, Mortimer Adler. As a set term “Great Books” has elicited more than some controversy, especially because most relatively short lists of such works mostly features “dead white men”. However, most any group in America has made the Great Ideas their own. This book explores the benefits of reading “Great Books,” and is virtually unique i...

Celebrating Intellectual Curiosity: Kindergarten Through College Scholarship and Research broadens the perspective on academic pursuits. Curiosity needs to be cultivated at all school levels. All formats of scholarship and research contribute to increased human understanding.The criteria for evaluating different scholarly activity needs to be well matched with the respective format. Both Scientific and Artistic standards need to be considered for a deeper appreciation of intents and...

The Challenge of Greatness: The Legacy of Great Teachers reveals the characteristics and teaching strategies of Great Teachers. Simultaneously the book describes a Pantheon of thirty-two great teachers, and challenges the reader to continue their legacy by becoming one. Recognizing the uniqueness of a great teacher, the book raises the kind of issues they face, and a range of possibilities from which they find solutions.

“Finally a book about teaching that tells it like it is,” NEA Today said about Michael Gose’s first edition, What It Means to Be a Teacher. The second edition continues the stories that capture the meaning of teaching and now looks back with commentary on how those tales also work as parables. In the spirit of Thomas Paine, this second edition uses “Common Sense” to tell what is really going on with students, teachers, and schools. (Hint: the reality is actually a lot more optimistic than ...

**#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Experience the book that started the Quiet Movement and revolutionized how the world sees introverts—and how introverts see themselves—by offering validation, inclusion, and inspiration“Superbly researched, deeply insightful, and a fascinating read, Quiet is an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to understand the gifts of the introverted half of the population.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project**

Patricia Anne would swear that either she or her sister Mary Alice were switched at birth, except they were both born at home.Flashy, flirtatious Mary Alice is one foot taller, twice the body weight of Patricia Anne, and three times as likely to do something completely off the wall. But now Mary Alice's impulsive behavior has land them both in the Birmingham jail!It all begins with a call from their good friend Mitzi Phizer, who's starting an investment club -- kind of a Beardstown...

**A New York Times-bestselling breakthrough book about talent, passion, and achievement from the one of the world's leading thinkers on creativity and self-fulfillment.The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the Element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in th...

Essential reading for our times, as women are pulling together to demand their rights— A landmark portrait of women, men, and power in a transformed world.“Anchored by data and aromatized by anecdotes, [Rosin] concludes that women are gaining the upper hand." –The Washington PostMen have been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind. But Hanna Rosin was the first to notice that this long-held truth is, astonishingly, no lo...

The Associated Press calls them "The Entitlement Generation," and they are storming into schools, colleges, and businesses all over the country. They are today's young people, a new generation with sky-high expectations and a need for constant praise and fulfillment. In this provocative new book, headline-making psychologist and social commentator Dr. Jean Twenge documents the self-focus of what she calls "Generation Me" -- people born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Herse...

Expose the hidden mechanisms that turn curious children into compliant workers. John Taylor Gatto's explosive follow-up to Dumbing Us Down reveals the specific techniques schools use to destroy imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as rote memorization rather than creative discovery.The Weaponization of Education:This isn't conspiracy theory - it's documented history. Gatto traces how compul...

A groundbreaking manifesto about what our nation’s top schools should be—but aren’t—providing: “The ex-Yale professor effectively skewers elite colleges, their brainy but soulless students (those ‘sheep’), pushy parents, and admissions mayhem” (People).As a professor at Yale, William Deresiewicz saw something that troubled him deeply. His students, some of the nation’s brightest minds, were adrift when it came to the big questions: how to think critically ...

“Clever, surprisingly fast-paced, and enlightening.” —ForbesMost new products fail. So do most businesses. And most of us, if we are honest, have experienced a major setback in our personal or professional lives. So what determines who will bounce back and follow up with a home run? What separates those who keep treading water from those who harness the lessons from their mistakes?One of our most popular business bloggers, Megan McArdle takes insig...