Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 162
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-4758-2830-6 • Hardback • June 2016 • $70.00 • (£54.00)
978-1-4758-2832-0 • Paperback • June 2016 • $35.00 • (£30.00)
978-1-4758-2833-7 • eBook • June 2016 • $33.00 • (£25.00)
Nancy Avery Dafoe is a published author and English educator at the secondary and college levels. Her books include Breaking Open the Box and Writing Creatively: A Guided Journal, published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2013 and 2014, respectively, and a memoir, An Iceberg in Paradise: A Passage through Alzheimer’s, published by SUNY Press in 2015.
Foreword: “Look with the Eyes of a Scientist”
Preface: Strangeness of Ideas
Introduction: Examples and Non-Examples
Chapter One: We’re Funding the Left Side of Your Brain
Chapter Two: “If I Didn’t Write in this Journal…”
Chapter Three: Why Aren’t Schools Run like Businesses?
Chapter Four: Faulty Logic; Public Discourse
Chapter Five: Tales “Told by Idiots Signifying Nothing”
Chapter Six: Why Teacher Evaluations Tied to Tests Don’t Work
Chapter Seven: What Hurt
Chapter Eight: Public Education Paradigm Shifts’ Menu
Chapter Nine: Common Core Head First
Chapter Ten: Why Students Should Read Tolstoy and Faulkner
Chapter Eleven: Consequences of Exclusionary Parameters
Chapter Twelve: Education without the Humanities
Chapter Thirteen: What You Don’t Know
Chapter Fourteen: Master Teachers in Every Classroom?
Chapter Fifteen: Welcome the Subversive
Chapter Sixteen: Insights from the Humanities
Chapter Seventeen: Allow Every Teacher to Engineer Reform
Chapter Eighteen: The Waste Land Revisited
Chapter Nineteen: Creating Meaningful, Lasting Reform
Chapter Twenty: Convergence of Poetry/Science
Chapter Twenty-One: Raining Poets
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Answer is the Question
Appendix A
Bibliography
About the Author of the Foreword
About the Author of The Misdirection of Education Policy
Index
Do you [think] should speak to your teen about autism spectrum disorder? Maybe they’ve a sibling, a good friend, or a classmate who has been recognized with ASD. Maybe you will have a teen with ASD. Maybe you’re a instructor, guardian, or pupil who would merely prefer to be taught extra. Absolutely up to date with the post-2015 terminology and diagnostic language, Autism Spectrum Dysfunction: The Final Teen Information, by Francis Tabone, presents an accessible, complete information to ASD for center college college students and above.... Tabone’s information is sensibly structured, so that every chapter builds on earlier data.... Tabone has put collectively an immensely useful e-book, not just for teenagers but in addition for different members of the group and lay readers alike. First-time educators will seemingly discover a lot that’s helpful right here, as will mother and father. Autism Spectrum Disorder could be handily [learned] in a day or two; it likewise lends itself to straightforward searching for individuals who would need to skip [around] or revisit explicit chapters later. In the long run ... , Tabone features a listing of additional sources for teenagers, together with web sites, books, and films which may be of [assistance]. However once more, anybody hoping to realize a larger perceive of ASD will profit from choosing ... this e-book.
— Definedepressionhelp.com
Nancy Dafoe has superbly articulated the problems and issues of our educational institutions. Drawing upon her expertise as an educator, Dafoe has nailed down what has to be done to save our public schools. I applaud her insistence that education need not be job training in technology and engineering alone or ‘about predetermining futures of young people, fitting them into slots;’ instead, it must focus on interdisciplinary approaches that integrate the humanities and liberal arts with STEM teachings. Dafoe recommends flexible schedules, mentored staff, project-based learning, ‘testing for measurement, not punishment for students or teachers,’ and exploring best teaching practices. Her common sense, effective solutions require time, determination, and careful planning in an environment in which quick fixes are demanded. Politicians and business opportunists, too, must read this book, as it expresses the ideas of highly skilled educators while, at the same time, providing credible strategies to save our public schools.
— Karen Hempson, Social Studies Education, retired; former Professional Development Coordinator (PDS); New York State University College at Cortland
In this book Dafoe convincingly argues that current efforts to privilege STEM subjects over the humanities, expand charter schools, and link teacher job security to student test scores are ill-conceived educational reforms. She clearly frames knotty issues and offers compelling solutions to unremitting problems. Dafoe accomplishes this task using poetry, personal interest stories, scenarios, and excerpts from teachers’ journals, as well as logical argument. The Misdirection of Education Policy: Raising Questions about School Reform is a must-read for anyone interested in fresh, insightful writing from a dedicated teacher with a deep knowledge of the research on education.
— Mary Lynch Kennedy, Distinguished teaching Professor Emeritus of English, State University of New York at Cortland
As an ecologist, systems-thinking has been ingrained in my formal training as a scientist and teacher. All too often, the tweaking of one resource is not fully understood until the unintended consequences on the system are made manifest. Nancy Avery Dafoe makes the case for informed, thoughtful, collaborative reforms to systemically address the holistic needs of our students as we collectively seek to develop universally needed skills, including critical thinking and problem solving, in our complex, interrelated world.
— Pamela Herrington, East Syracuse Minoa Science Department and NYS STEM Master Teacher, NOAA Climate Steward
Dafoe is a master educator with keen political sensibilities. She has privileged her audience by delivering an innovative and engaging account of current educational policies and practices. Readers come away equipped with informed insights that cannot help but provoke meaningful conversations about the redemptive possibilities of learning and good policy decisions. Dafoe’s work holds the promise of restoring confidence in the uniquely American tradition of education while respecting the full potential of each and every child and teacher who is a part of it.
— Karen Pastorello, History Professor, Women and Gender Studies Chair, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence, Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3)