If a person is an education student and is interested in a historical perspective on education theory, this book is a quick enough read to warrant a look. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.
I was really put off by the fact that the author uses the word 'retarded' frequently. As the book was written in 1974 and that was the common terminology, I can't blame him - I just found it off-putting.
He is very anti-IQ testing. In and of itself, I don't have a problem with that. In fact, I can see where some of his work could've provided the foundation for our current thinking on multiple intelligence. So there is value in that. What bothered me is that he tried to oversimplify and lump pretty much every child with low IQ into either 'hostile' or 'unforthcoming' and suggest that, 'if we teach them HOW to learn, they'll be fine.' Well... no. Some kids, sure. But there are just as many kids who are not ever going to be academically inclined and do well in school, no matter how many and varied the teaching tools. It all just seemed simplistic to me. And it seemed like he was most concerned with promoting his educational materials.
I will say I thought the Chapter 'How Children Learn To Read' was worthwhile. Best part of the book, and the reason it gets 2 stars, not 1. If you ever find the book and want to have a look, I'd skip right to this chapter.
