Academics: Faculty Reading Lists

Each year the Bement School faculty practices what we preach and assigns ourselves summer reading. Along with faculty recommendations, the Head of School compiles a list from which faculty and staff can make a selection. The Clagett Fund, an endowment for professional development, makes purchasing the books possible, and everyone heads into the summer with a book in tow. Choices always include the year's Newbery Medalist, as well as publications which address a range of issues in contemporary education.

When the faculty and staff convene for back-to-school meetings in late August, book groups are formed to discuss the reading. This often inspires yet another round of swapping, as we're inspired to read something we hadn't chosen for the summer. We share this list with you at this time in the hopes that it might inspire you, too, to enjoy some summer reading.

Summer 2009:

Mindset,  Carol Dweck
Stanford professor of psychology, Dweck proposes that everyone has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is one in which you view your talents and abilities as... well, fixed. In other words, you are who you are, your intelligence and talents are fixed, and your fate is to go through life avoiding challenge and failure. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is one in which you see yourself as fluid, a work in progress. Your fate is one of growth and opportunity. Which mindset do you possess? Dweck provides a checklist to assess yourself and shows how a particular mindset can affect all areas of your life, from business to sports and love. The good news, says Dweck, is that mindsets are not set: at any time, you can learn to use a growth mindset to achieve success and happiness. This is a serious, practical book. Dweck's overall assertion that rigid thinking benefits no one and that a change of mind is always possible, is welcome. (Booklist review) We read her article last summer; this is a larger feast.

A Whole New Mind,  Daniel Pink
Pink, best-selling author and chief speechwriter for former vice-president Al Gore, has crafted a profound read packed with an abundance of references to books, seminars, Web sites, and such to expand your right brain if you plan to survive and prosper in the Western world. According to Pink, the keys to success are in developing and cultivating six senses: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. Pink compares this upcoming "Conceptual Age" to past periods of intense change, such as the Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance, as a way of emphasizing its importance. (Booklist review)

The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
In the 2009 Newbery Award winner, The Graveyard Book, Gaiman has created a charming allegory of childhood. Although the book opens with a scary scene--a family is stabbed to death by "a man named Jack” --the story quickly moves into more child-friendly storytelling. The sole survivor of the attack--an 18-month-old baby--escapes his crib and his house, and toddles to a nearby graveyard. Quickly recognizing that the baby is orphaned, the graveyard's ghostly residents adopt him and allow him to live in their tomb. Taking inspiration from Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Gaiman describes how the toddler navigates among the headstones, asking a lot of questions and picking up the tricks of the living and the dead. In serial-like episodes, the story follows Bod's progress as he grows from baby to teen, learning life’s lessons amid a cadre of the long-dead, ghouls, witches, intermittent human interlopers. Whenever the boy strays from his usual play among the headstones, he finds new dangers, learns his limitations and strengths, and acquires the skills he needs to survive within the confines of the graveyard and in wider world beyond. (Amazon.com review)

Born Digital, John Palfrey and Urs Gasser
Palfrey and Gasser, lawyers who specialize in intellectual property and information issues, document the myriad ways downloading, text-messaging, Massively Multiplayer Online Games–playing, YouTube-watching youth are transforming society. Energetic, expert, and forward-looking, the authors serve as envoys between the generations, addressing issues that worry parents and educators, from privacy and safety concerns to the quality of digital information, the psychological and physical effects of information overload and excessive online time, and legal and ethical issues, all the while stressing the need for digital literacy and critical thinking. Palfrey and Gasser believe in the value of the participatory culture the Internet fosters, and in the Internet’s nurturing of creativity, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and global citizenship. As old institutions crumble, there is a need for this sort of enlightening, commonsensical, and positive guide to digital reality. (Booklist Review)

Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell poses a provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't appear out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "They are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky." (Amazon.com review)

Whatever It Takes, Paul Tough
What would it take to change the lives of poor children--not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led Geoffrey Canada to create the Harlem Children's Zone, a ninety-seven-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America. His conclusion: if you want poor kids to be able to compete with their middle-class peers, you need to change everything in their lives--their schools, their neighborhoods, even the child-rearing practices of their parents. Whatever It Takes is a tour de force of reporting, an inspired portrait not only of Geoffrey Canada but also of the parents and children in Harlem who are struggling to better their lives, often against great odds. Carefully researched and deeply affecting, this is a dispatch from inside the most daring and potentially transformative social experiment of our time. Paul Tough is an editor at the New York Times Magazine and one of America's foremost writers on poverty, education, and the achievement gap. (Amazon.com review)

So Sexy So Soon, Diane E Levin, Ph.D and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D
In an age of the media’s stepped-up assault on childhood, Levin and Kilbourne, internationally recognized experts in child development and the impact of media on kids, have teamed up to help parents of children of all ages. This groundbreaking book includes poignant stories to demonstrate how kids internalize what they see and hear and provides extensive practical strategies for counteract disturbing messages. (Review excerpted from the Wellesley Research and Action Report, Fall/Winter 2008)