Reviews for Linking Home and School: Partnership in Practice in Primary Education

The average rating for Linking Home and School: Partnership in Practice in Primary Education based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-05-09 00:00:00 Katherine Taft 'To solve this crisis will take a revolution.' America, according to this book, is in a literacy crisis. American students, declared George Bush Senior, are placed 'dead last amongst the industrial world' in scholastic tests. If this was true (and still true), then why is it so? The Salt Lake Tribune reports that when American children finish their schooling, nearly half of them will 'read and write so poorly that it is difficult for them to hold a decent job'. Leaving aside what might be defined as a 'decent' job, functional literacy is surely one of the objectives of education? As is pointed out in this book, illiteracy costs the individual, their family and the broader community. How can this literacy crisis be solved? In the first part of this book, Mr Cleckler outlines the impacts of illiteracy and talks about the size of the problem as well as some of the reasons why this is not acknowledged. In the second part, Mr Cleckler describes a solution, as well as issuing a challenge to the reader. Bob Cleckler makes a case for spelling reform, which is articulated clearly and documented meticulously in this book. Many people would agree with Mr Cleckler. Sure, there are those of us who enjoy the challenge of English's idiosyncratic spelling, but most of us prefer modern English to middle English. And few of us would be disadvantaged if the spelling of English underwent further reform. This book is focused on America, but the problem is far more widespread. I'll be passing my copy of the book on to other Australians with an interest in literacy. This book is well worth considering by anyone with an interest in the causes and consequences of illiteracy. And it is up to those of us who are functionally literate to make a difference. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-11 00:00:00 Rudolph J. Beckstrom This book started off really well with some great ideas for how to get ideas flowing. I like the exercises and did try to do them as the book suggested. However, I am no longer a student and so the latter half of the book about how to do assignments and write essays lost my interest. Not a criticism: I'm not the target audience.