Reviews for An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students

The average rating for An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-02-28 00:00:00 Brian Gilbertson It was difficult rating this book. In some ways, I feel bad giving it an average rating since it has such a positive goal. I loved the intentions of the author -- to not just propose better ways to educate young people, but also to redefine education as about something more and very different than standardized testing. His insights into creating a supportive culture, the importance of refining drafts, of deriving work from models of excellence, and many other points were all enlightening and useful. I applaud the book for that. On the other hand, while the intentions were admirable beyond a doubt, the author didn't quite "convince" me. I wanted to be convinced, since I think education does not get nearly the care it deserves and is not setup properly to help people most, but ultimately I was not. For example, the author outlines early on in the book how, in presentations he gave, skeptics of his methods weren't convinced by the stories of how well his students were doing -- until they saw the work of the students themselves. Yet, in the book, all it does is talk about high quality of the student work without showing any examples. I found a bit astounding: he spells out exactly what he learned he needed to do to convince everyone, describes it in the book, and doesn't actually do it in the book! There's not a single example of one of his student's work in the book despite the multitude of references to the essential portfolio of work he carries to all his talks. I suspect that in the author's eyes, I likely would fit the model of ones of those skeptics thinking about education too systematically and in business metrics terms...a mindset which he uses a bit of a disdainful tone for. Nonetheless, as much as I didn't want to fit the mold of those people the author looked down on for not getting it, a collection of anecdotes about student success (told with, to be honest in my critique, a bit of a prideful manner) was not enough for me because, well, I do think like that. Another problem was I wasn't even actually sure what the author was trying to convince me of. I believe the author was a very hard working man who did an tremendous job teaching his students in a way that traditional system never allow him to. But the book felt too much like a story of what his own enormous talents and efforts could accomplish, rather than a broader thesis into what needs to happen to improve education on a large scale. Not all, but too much of that success seemed to depend on the particular teacher, not a theory, an approach, a thesis, or anything else that could be externalized and embraced everywhere. The author, of course, specifically addresses this and implies those looking to "scale up" his work are missing the point -- and that's where my enthusiasm for the book deflated. I have to believe that there are ways to improve the system. I would never argue that great teachers are anything but essential to great teaching (and need the creative freedom to work as their talent guides them), but human progress often is about individuals enacting changes in the culture and the system beyond themselves: externalizing it. Beyond some minor points, I never really understood what the author's particular changes for the "system" of education were, nor was I convinced that they did not depend too heavily on the being bolstered by a great teacher where greatness is rare quality. Perhaps that was the exact message of the book: great teaching will always require great people. I just had been hoping to read about something more -- some way to make a global change that can exist without the constant, heroic efforts of rare individuals. Such individuals will always be necessary to push the system further, but I still fundamentally believe that externalized, global change is possible and maybe that is why the book did not inspire me as much as I hoped.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-08-25 00:00:00 Marc Alston I enjoyed the stories of this teacher's experiences in the classroom. The different routines that he has set up gave me ideas for how to approach my own projects this year. My overall impression was that the author is a compassionate person who cares about educating children and that his big heart goes a long way to bringing out the best in his students.