Syllabus

By Andrea Sachs

Your kids aren't the only ones who can prepare for school. These books will help you get up to speed as well:

WHAT REALLY HAPPENS IN SCHOOL A Guide to Your Child's Emotional, Social, and Intellectual Development, Grades K-5 (Hyperion) "You can't just take it for granted that your child will have the same kind of learning experiences at school that you did," writes parenting expert Ann LaForge. Her book is a commonsense road map to modern elementary schools for parents. LaForge interviewed teachers, principals, school psychologists and other experts to develop her profiles of classrooms in each grade. She urges every parent to make a commitment to stay involved in his or her child's education, whether by volunteering, reading all the papers the school sends home, supervising homework or even making sure that a child gets a good breakfast. Sound like too much homework in these busy times? "Your child's success at school," writes LaForge, "has to be important enough for you to want to find the time and energy to stay on top of what's happening in the classroom."

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER (Bard) Americans tend to view the teenage years, from puberty to the prom, as a singular life passage. But author Thomas Hine reminds us that for most of our history, those between 13 and 19 did not move in lockstep through their education--or even attend school--and that the word teenager dates back only to 1941. "What was new about the idea of the teenager at the time the word first appeared during World War II," writes Hine, "was the assumption that all young people--regardless of their class, location or ethnicity--should have essentially the same experience, spent with people exactly their age, in an environment defined by high school and pop culture." In his thoughtful book, Hine traces the history of teenagers in America, and the development of the modern high school, while questioning some of our presumptions about "the noble savage in blue jeans, the future in your face." Hine challenges the idea that teenagers should automatically be held back in their schooling, employment and sexual development for the sake of uniformity. Get ready for an even greater impact of the high school generation, writes Hine. "In the first decade of the 21st century, America can anticipate the largest generation of teenagers in its history, one even larger than the baby-boomer generation that entered its teens four decades ago."

THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards" (Houghton Mifflin) "Any number of people subscribe to the Listerine theory of education," writes author Alfie Kohn. "The old ways may be distasteful, but they're effective." Kohn, a well-known education critic, argues that the current back-to-basics movement is wrongheaded. This provocative book is for those with a taste for education at 10,000 ft., who want to catch up with the latest theoretical developments. Kohn dives into the culture-war arguments with relish, claiming that there is a misguided "aggressive nostalgia loose in the land." He mocks much of the current dialogue. "People from parents to Presidents have begun to sound like cranky, ill-informed radio-talk-show hosts," he writes, "and almost anything can be done to students and to schools, no matter how ill considered, as long as it is done in the name of 'raising standards' or 'accountability.'" You'll never again listen to a speech about education the same way after reading this book.

--By Andrea Sachs