1 comments about Kokopelli: The Making of an Icon.

1. This is the definitive book on the phenomenon. If you want a discussion of the real "Kokopelli" rather than a compendium of fanciful and spurious "new age" ideas, this work provides that and more. Along the way you will gain interesting insights into Hopi culture, and how the Kokopelli phemomenon may have started and grown. Nicely illustrated.

No comments about Michel Foucault (Core Cultural Theorists Series).

3 comments about Messiah.

1. Dr. Bo Hi Pak's "Messiah" is a great book and could be enjoyed by anyone who either loves history (especially histories of the Cold War) or who loves God. A reader does not have to agree with all of Dr. Pak's points of view to appreciate this passionately and articulately written memoir. In it, Dr. Pak describes many miracles which he personally encountered in his life. One such experience occurred when, in the middle of the Korean War, he led a company of soldiers across the Changchon River. When they were suddenly ambushed by Chinese soldiers manning machine-guns on the opposite cliff, he and his men were completely exposed, with soldiers dying all around. How, from the entire company, Dr. Pak and two other soldiers alone managed to survive this impossible situation makes a fascinating account. Dr. Pak credits God's intervention for saving his life. This memoir is on the one hand autobiographical; on the other, it is a tribute to Dr. Pak's spiritual mentor, Reverend Sun Myung Moon. As such, it takes the reader behind the scenes in a number of amazing events, including the establishment of the Washington Times, from scratch, in less than five months in 1982, and Reverend Moon's April, 1990 meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.



2. Readers of this book who are not Unificationists may not be aware that Dr. Bo Hi Pak is in fact a "doctor" only by dint of an honorary degree. When I was a Unification Church member he was most commonly referred to as "Colonel Pak", by his military ranking which was earned in the Korean Army. He is also believed to have been a highly ranked operative for the Korean C.I.A. intelligence agency, as was mentioned in numerous articles in the New York Times in the fall of 1976. His purpose in promoting Sun Myung Moon is, therefore, to continue the 40-yearold deception which began in the early 1960s when Moon was believed by the strong anti-communist South Korean regime of that era to be a useful tool in rallying American popular support for that nation. Although the Korean government has since democratized, and that intelligence operation has long since ceased, Bo Hi Pak continues to this day to attempt to create an undeservedly favorable impression of Moon in the American media.



3. This book has to be one of the most inspirational books I have ever read. The author describes his life in the most heartfelt manner. Many times I could not even continue to read the words on the page because it made me cry so hard. His description of the Korean War, the death of his mother and the ultimate joy in finding the purpose of life left me with so much emotion and I am so grateful to Dr. Pak for sharing those deep emotions. The book is beautifully written and so logically presented that any person reading it cannot help but be tremendously moved. I hope that it will receive the audience it deserves. Thank you Dr. Pak.

No comments about The Education of A Schoolmaster: My Years at St. Paul's School.

1 comments about The Discipline of Hope: Learning from a Lifetime of Teaching.

1. Above all, Herbert Kohn, teacher extraordinary, says we must listen to children so we can discover how to teach them. Then, he lays a heavy one on us: ALL children can learn. And he takes us with him so we can watch him do it. In schoolrooms, homes, churches, public areas, from East coast to West coast and back again -- wherever the learners are. He lets us see why top-down public education policy is not the best way. We haven't asked the teachers who know -- and can figure out if they are allowed to do so -- how to do this thing called teaching. And never does he separate teaching and learning. They work together. Readers get to see some of the special projects Kohl has worked on and hear some of the students who have learned with him. He has done some amazing work but tells about it in such a way that it seems possible to the rest of us, whether teachers, learners, parents, or taxpayers.

2 comments about Touching Tomorrow: The Emily Griffith Story.

1. After going to a fantastic book reading by the author, I picked up the book because I was interested in hearing more about Faulkner's theory on Emily Griffith's murder. I was not dissapointed in the least at Faulkner's eloquent yet lively interpretation of this amazing woman's life and her murder theories. You will read this book in 2 days. It is well worth the purchase, as Emily's life is testament to lessons applicable to today's educational system.



2. "Touching Tomorrow" represents a thorough and detailed history of Emily Griffith and Denver's Opportunity School. The transition from prairie schoolmarm to influential innovator is inspiring, entertaining and well documented.
   Obviously a great admirer of Ms. Griffith, Faulkner still manages to create a mostly unbiased account of the teacher's life. While some details are either glossed over or merely alluded to, this can easily be attributed to the lack of verifiable information. Other specifics tend to be overstated, making the book at times read like a collection of serialized installments. However, the author's ability to create a timely and relevant backdrop helps place Griffith's life in historic perspective and adds to the enjoyment of this biography.

3 comments about The Emergency Teacher: The Inspirational Story of a New Teacher in an Inner City School.

1. It is fair to note that had Christina Asquith taught in a more affluent part of Philadelphia or a middle class suburban community, she probably couldn't write a book about her one-year experience as a teacher. Before being trained as such (even trained teachers have to struggle in the beginning by learning on the job) she should not have accepted a teaching job from a district which would simply throw her to the wolves, as such. As she pointed out, a few teachers in this abysmal school were dynamic and great managers of their classes. And it seems true (was for me, at least) that it takes about three years to build ones teaching techniques--and maybe five years to really feel confident. But Asquith had an unfortunate placement in a tragically-run school.
   
   Nevertheless, Asquith's portrayal of the (reputed) worst school in Philadelphia (and too many others come close) is heart-rending and shocking, and the revelation an embarrassment to the district--let's hope.
   
   The author had it many times harder than I. How she held on for a full school year is a testament to her character in the face of the school district's incompetence. The book is more revelatory than inspirational, and though a fast and sometimes engrossing read it is rather depressing. I think a prospective teacher--who isn't desperate--would tend to not teach in a big-city public school after reading this account.
   
   I retired a few months before Asquith started her experiment in teaching, and my school (after at least 30 years of relative calm) was just starting to become infected by students creating bedlam in their classrooms and hallways. I had good control, was creative and motivational, but even my tolerence with the system forced me and other veterans in the school to take the early retirement incentive being offered by the state (so the district could hire two new teachers for the price of one veteran with higher degrees). We could see what was coming.
   
   Now, the reader will understand why 50 percent of new hires leave teaching within 3-5 years--the shorter time representing big-city public schools. Teaching can be very rewarding, but also one of the toughest jobs there is, and the emotional stress is equal to that of a police person "on the beat"--I've read.
   
   The following partial paragraph from page 98, gives a sense of the entire book:
   
   "I'd set out wholly single-mindedly to learn to teach, and suddenly my failure became a real possibility. I'd personally staked everything on suceeding, I'd given up my career, my Inguirer [Newspaper] friends... If I was failing and wasn't making a shred of difference, what was the point? How could I answer the question: How was your day?"
   
   A Non-Workbook, Non-Textbook Approach to Teaching Language Arts: Grades 4 Through 8 and Up



2. Every teacher young and old should have this book. This book tells the tale of a new teachers struggle to get through to an inner-city school. Sure there have been plenty of movies with the same plot, but this account is great. Chirstina Asqquith writes with heart and soul, and you will really route for her in this inspirational story.



3. How many employment opportunities require minimal or absolutely no experience required? I certainly didn't expect that teaching would be one of them when I first looked into substitute teaching.
   
   There are some areas in the U.S. where substitute teaching requires an actual teaching degree. These jobs are filled by newly graduated or retired teachers. There are other areas in this country where "some" college or simply a H.S. diploma is the requirement.
   
   The difference comes down to supply and demand economics. If you have an excess of talent in a small market, you will almost certainly need a master's degree to step into a teacher's role for the day.
   
   I just finished reading "The Emergency Teacher" that relates the first hand account of Christina Asquith's first year as a full time teacher at one of the worst schools in Philadelphia, despite being untrained and uncertified.
   
   Synopsis:
   
   "School District of Philadelphia, in desperate need of 1,500 new teachers, instituted a policy of hiring "emergency certified" instructors. Asquith, then a 25-year-old reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, joined their untrained ranks. More challenging than her classroom in the crime-infested neighborhood known as "the Badlands" are the trials she faced outside, including a corrupt principal, the politics that prevented a million-dollar grant from reaching her students, and the administration's shocking insistence that teachers maintain the appearance of success in the face of utter defeat..."
   
   She lasted a full 180 day school year and didn't result in the typical Hollywood ending.
   
   That's 179 more days than I would have attempted had I been crazy enough to try. I guess that's the difference between being young, idealistic and full of energy .vs. mature (re: much older), realistic and pooped.

3 comments about Nicholas Miraculous: The Amazing Career of the Redoubtable Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler.

1. Nicholas Miraculous: the Amazing Career of the Redoubtable Dr. Nicholas Michael Rosenthal's biography of Nicholas Murray Butler was fascinating reading for me because of Butler's position as my father's boss and major influence on the social, political and academic world in which he lived during the 1930's and early 1940's (my formative years). It was a world of clubby collegiality for those on the inside, formal social affairs, conservative politics, anti-Semitism, and class and cultural snobbery. Attitudes towards Franco's Spain, Mussolini's Fascism and Hitler's Nazis ranged from admiration to toleration - at least up to the time of the invasion of Poland in 1939. The issue of Negroes on the faculty or in the student body was so far from Butler's concern or concept of the way things should be that it is not even mentioned in his biography. Faculty members were free to exercise academic freedom so long as they did not publicly challenge any of the basic principles of the world of Butler and his colleagues. Those who did, were dismissed or passed over for promotion.
   My father often complained about the internal politics he had to deal with at Columbia and I had assumed that this was a problem endemic to all academic institutions, but after reading this book I get the impression that it was worse at Columbia than other places because of the personality and policies of Butler himself who was not a very good administrator.



2. Professor Rosenthal has done a superb job of evoking the persona of the man who built Columbia, using his 44-year tenure as university president. The author has even succeeded in evoking the reader's sympathies for Butler, a powerful leader who, viewed in today's lights, was an autocratic megalomaniac who missed many opportunities to build an even greater educational institution on Morningside Heights.
   
   This biography will be of great interest to anyone who spent time at Columbia (or its sister institutions) during the 20th century -- the years during which Butler's influence was at its zenith. It provides, perhaps for the first time, a background for some of the University's admirable traditions, balanced, wisely, by a few rather embarassing episodes in its history.



3. Well written, but of interest mostly to those who went to Columbia while he was president.

1 comments about People of the Blue Water : A Record of the Life Among the Walapai and Havasupai Indians.

1. This is an interesting (true) story of a young woman who heads west to work as a teacher among the the Walapai and Havasupai tribes in Arizona in the early 1900's. Her journey takes her to the tribe settlement at the base of the Grand Canyon, where tribe members existed with little or no contact with the outside world. The story of this tribe, along with their culture and existence in the Grand Canyon is unknown to many. The book is filled with fascinating accounts of the people of the tribe and the struggles they have faced. In addition, through her personal reflections, Flora Gregg Iliff does a good job of giving us a sense of the life and challenges faced by missionaries and teachers who went West at a time when the land was still being settled.

1 comments about The Life Of Paramahansa Yoganada: The Early Years In America (1920-1928).

1. Firstly, I wish to state that I enjoyed this DVD about the life of Yogananda completely. It tells us the difficulties Yogananda faced in establishing his foothold on American soil. The narration is superb in quality but fails to bring the viewer to a deeper understanding on Yogananda's early mission in America.
   
   Thus the only negative point I feel about this DVD is that it is too short and brief. The 30-minute viewing time does not justify the price of this DVD. Furthermore it has no extras or useful additional tidbits on the early life of Yogananda in America.