The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas S. Kuhn (ED 209A)

This is not light reading. This is one of "The Hundred Most Influential Books Since the Second World War" (by The Times Literary Supplement).

Written in 1962 by a physicist, Kuhn had realized that science is not additive nor cumulative. It's not a process of some people have great ideas and then other people experiment based on those ideas and have their own great ideas, and so on. Instead, there are revolutions. Scientists believe paradigms that they are taught and they expect that their research will confirm and explain that paradigm. Eventually, however, people encounter anomalies. When these anomalies accrue, suddenly the paradigm isn't looking so hot and starts to be reexamined. New paradigms are put forth, and scientists argue and squabble and eventually come around to the best one at the time.

An example? Newtonian vs. Einsteinian physics. They explain the same phenomena in very different ways. For Einstein to be right, Newton had to be wrong. He didn't learn more about physics - he shifted the whole concept of physics.

So, why on earth did I read it for an education policy course? That's the question everybody loves to ask him. Me, I got more faith in him - he's da man, my advisor. One reason, the explication and description of paradigms - fantastic. Another, applications to social sciences such as education. Another reason, Kuhn is cited all the damn time and it's good to know him and this book.

Religious Toleration: "The Variety of Rites" from Cyrus to Defoe, ed. by John Christian Laursen (POSC212)

Hey! The idea of tolerating people who have different religions and belief systems isn't new and modern!

The chapters in this bookbegin with Cyrus II of Persia (who ruled 559-530 BC) went against traditions of the time and allowed a wide range of beliefs in his kingdom - even helping to rebuild destroyed temples for worship he personally did not believe in. (He's mentioned in the Old Testament in the Second Chronicles, Ezra, Isaiah, and Daniel). Then a Chinese scholar writes of the culture of toleration in China, describing Jews who settled there long before 1000 AD and maintained their own culture while not being persecuted for their differentness.

The next interesting chapter is on Bartolome de Las Casas who was an outspoken opponent of the raping and pillaging Spaniards were doing in "The New World." He gave up in encomienda in order to be a priest of Chiapas, though much of his time was spent in Spain trying to raise consciousness about the atrocities and how they go against Christianity.

Other chapters discuss Muslims in Renaissance England, economics and toleration (Defoe), different denominational struggles, and humor and toleration in the early 1600's in England.

An interesting book, particularly the introduction chapters by Laursen (the professor of the course) which help clarify concepts and terms (toleration is his big study focus). Toleration has long existed and not just because of our "modern" concept that there is no one single "right" way of being. Most religions, including Christianity and Islam, call for their followers to attempt to convert, but that leads to horrific injustices such as the Inquisition. Tolerating diverse beliefs - not necessarily agreeing with, but not persecuting - is a key to peace.

The World We Created at Hamilton High by Gerald Grant (ED209A)

This book follows a school through different stages - as the new school in the 1950's (the pride of all those white students and parents), into the 1960's and 1970's with civil unrest, desegregation, the breakdown of social mores including increased students' rights, and then into the 1980's when its mission changes (to be more inclusive among other things).

It's a fascinating ethnography, well-documented and explicated, about what this business of schooling is about. The tensions that create a school culture are viewed from different perspectives - students, teachers, parents, and administrators. They are seen within the U.S. cultural context and as a microcosm alone.

A quick and interesting book, it reads like a novel (not painfully like most education policy stuff I read). My second time reading, I know I got more this time - it has several layers of information that are much like those "turtles stacked on turtles" (as culture is described in my qualitative research course).

I highly recommend it to anybody who likes to think and reflect about education and schooling.

Ruling Passions: Political Offices and Democratic Ethics by Andrew Sabl (POSC212)

OK, first I have to confess that it really discouraged me when I saw that Sabl is one year younger than me. Good grief! I'm so intellectually behind! And then I met him (he's a professor at UCLA) and he's a very nice person, and probably brilliant, and human - and that made me feel better. I don't have to be a brilliant political scientist on top of everything else - I can leave that sort of thing in the hands of people like Sabl.

Which is one of the tenets of his book - the division of labor in the political arena ("governing pluralism"). He focuses on three "offices" (using good and bad examples): senator (using Everett Dirksen and Joseph McCarthy as examples), moral activist (Martin Luther King, Jr. and Frances Willard), and organizer (Ella Baker and Stokely Carmichael; allusions to Saul Alinsky and Robert Moses). He then developed his theory of what is "good" for each of these offices (which is definitely not the same), all within the context of "democratic constancy."

Democratic constancy is an interesting theory - it is anti-perfectionist. It accepts the humanness of people and leaders, while expecting a striving towards at least half-virtues. Killing is bad, lying is bad - but compromising and deal-making and working for "enlightened self-interest" (Tocqueville) is good. If we as citizens expect moral perfection of our leaders, we will always be bitterly disappointed (as will they be if they expect it of us). Instead, we can look at overall character contextually.

This was not an easy breeze-through on a beach kind of book. Particularly when using theories from Aristotle, Madison and Hamilton, and Tocqueville to develop his own, my attention wandered. His use of examples, however, was edifying and clear. I learned a ton and most of it made very good sense.

Teacher Education and the Cultural Imagination: Autobiography, Conversation, and Narrative -Susan Florio-Ruane (223)

OK, so I didn't pick this book up for fun and randomly choose to read it. Yeah, it's required. But it's cool! It's about a bookclub.

The researcher is interested in teaching teachers about culture. Most of us realize that the way we're taught about multiculturalism is a load of donkey manure. In those workshops or classes, the cultures are presented as static, as if reading an article written by an outsider I can now say, "I am an expert in *** culture."

Florio-Ruane looks to narratives for understanding culture, particularly autobiography. She gets six volunteer student teachers to meet at her house once a month (she bought the books and fed them dinner) to discuss different autobiographies dealing with culture -

• Vivian Paley's White Teacher (love her),
• Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (great book, love her),
• Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation (fantastic book - one of the best I ever read),
• Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory (BLECH! What a freaken WHINER - nobody loves me, I'm always an outcast, blah blah blah),
• Jill Ker Conway's The Road from Coorain (haven't read), and
• Mike Rose's Lives on the Boundary (hate it, really).

Learning about culture and understanding its effects on students is not possible in a staff development day - it's a long, difficult process that involves examining our own culture and biases. And interesting.

And I realized (again) how cool our bookclub is. We are so interested in other cultures, and we dig in without the presuppositions that could really inhibit our understandings. We're cool. It's fun. And I hope it's reflected in how we deal with our students.

Faster by James Gleick

I expected this to be as interesting and thought-provoking and informative as Gleick's earlier book Chaos. It's not.

It is a study of the speed of our lives - how we always seek to do things faster and what tools we use in that pursuit.

It is interesting, and it also made me realize how I don't participate in the rat race much. I could recognize my friends in it more than me (with the exception of fast talking). It's also an easy read, a quick read, but not an extremely satisfying one.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Has any non-religious book been analyzed and discussed more? I have nothing to add to the debate, no particular insight.

While it can be read as a metaphor, it is indeed the story of a middle-aged man who is sexually obsessed with "nymphets" - young (less than 14 years old) girls who have a particular sexual allure imagined by him. He is textbook pedophile, and it is creepy to read about. Not just from a moral standpoint (though as one sworn to protect children, as I am, it's troubling), but psychologically. He speaks of her sobs each night once he's essentially abducted her to be his sextoy. She's a lonely child whose only power is over him is sexual, and then only in peculiar ways. It's disturbing. It's not only an allegory.

At the same time, it is fascinating. It reminds me of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Poe because of its narrative structure - the crazy man "justifying" his actions. I found a lot of borrowing there. How the narrative is propelled is interesting - the journey and the automobile. The psychology of power and abuse, also fascinating.

It's worth reading, but it did lose my interest near the end. I think the ultimate crime is just a plot vehicle (to be more "Tell-Tale-Heart"-ish) and I don't find it plausible.

For summary: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lolita/summary.html

For better insights see Reading Lolita in Tehran - a very good book.

From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey

From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey by Pascal Khoo Thwe

The author was born and raised Kayan Padaung in the remote hills of Burma/Myanmar (famous for the tradition of "giraffe-necked" women - the many gold rings creating the illusion of extending their necks). He writes vividly of the traditions and realities of that life.

He entered seminary at a young age (the village had been Catholicized a couple generations ago), then moved into university with a particular interest in English literature. His descriptions of learning at the Mandalay university are intriguing - students are to never disagree with teachers (having an original opinion can lead to severe consequences - such as the student who asked a question and was imprisoned and tortured to insanity), exams are repeating dictated essays that have been memorized, and the literature for an entire year consisted of perhaps 15 poems, one play, and one novel. During this time he worked at a restaurant, where he met a Cambridge professor.

Burma has had a military dictatorship for years (Aung San Suu Kyi is a remarkable dissident), and the author's education was seriously disrupted. During riots protesting the political state, he became a student activist. When the rebellion was crushed, he fled into the jungles and eventually into Thailand, where the Cambridge professor "rescued" him. The author then entered Cambridge - the first Padaung to receive a western education (few have any education), where he graduated and wrote this book.

It's a fascinating book - especially for the insights into Padaung and Burmese culture. If you can't place Myanmar/Burma on the map and are unaware of the Karenni rebels, I highly recommend it.