Chester E. Finn Jr.

There is a great deal of information in this book, but I'm not sure who it is for. It seems that it was written for parents in order for them to gauge whether the school is teaching their children what they need for a good education. One gets the impression that schools are failing our children completely. If you follow this book's suggestions, you would need to work full-time sitting in classrooms, questioning the teachers, perusing the reading lists and doing this for each subject in each grade! No one has the time to do that, or if they did, they were either homeschooling or sending their child to an elite private school. In some ways, the book is better suited for teachers or principals of schools who want to make sure they are including everything that, in the opinion of William J. Bennett, is necessary for a good education. As for homeschoolers - this book could be useful, it includes lists of books for each subject and grade. In that case, I would look rather at Susan Wise Bauer's The Well-Trained Mind, because it is a) written by a person who was homeschooled and homeschooled her own kids, b) not only has lists of books, but actually presents a schedule and instructions on how to do this. Overall, I did not find this book very useful.… (mehr)