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Ethan Demme

Thoughts and Policy for Building a Better Pennsylvania

  • Education Reform
  • Parental Engagement
  • Public Policy
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Lancaster County
  • Education Reform
  • Parental Engagement
  • Public Policy
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Lancaster County
  • Education Reform
  • Parental Engagement
  • Public Policy
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Lancaster County

Book Reviews

Book Review: A Secure Base by John Bowlby

April 8, 2015

Danielle & Lilliyan: Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kryten/125710155/in/photostream/
Image by kryten CC BY 2.0

John Bowlby is considered the father of attachment theory, a prevailing psychological model for understanding bonds between human beings. As a result of Bowlby’s work in 1940s with troubled and emotionally disturbed children, he discovered the problems that occur when the mother-child bond is disrupted and these observations led to his understanding of the significance of attachment bonds.

Bowlby spoke for the need for the most often natural role of parents as a secure base for their children. He wrote:

“Provided the parent is known to be accessible and will be responsive when called upon, a healthy child feels secure enough to explore. At first these explorations are limited both in time and space. Around the middle of the third year, however, a secure child begins to become confident enough to increase time and distance away-first to half days and later to whole days. As he grows into adolescence, his excursions are extended to weeks or months, but a secure home base remains indispensable nonetheless for optimal functioning and mental health.” (A Secure Base, page 137)

He reported on a study that looked at children who bonded with either the mother or the father, both the mother and the father, or neither the mother or the father. The study’s findings are fairly intuitive but important to examine.

“Children with a secure relationship to both parents were most confident and most competent; children who had a secure relationship to neither were least so; and those with a secure relationship to one parent but not to the other came in between.” (A Secure Base, page 12)

Many have believed and still believe that attachment behavior is unhealthy and that the goal of parenting is to usher a child out of a stage of dependency just as quickly as possible. For Bowlby, this was a gross misunderstanding of human nature.

“No parent is going to provide a secure base for his growing child unless he has an intuitive understanding of and respect for his child’s attachment behavior and treats it as the intrinsic and valuable part of human nature I believe it to be. This is where the traditional term ‘dependence’ has had so baleful an influence. Dependency always carries with it an adverse valuation and tends to be regarded as a characteristic only of the early years and one which ought soon to be grown out of.

As a result in clinical circles it has often happened that, whenever attachment behavior is manifested during later years, it has not only been regarded as regrettable but has even been dubbed regressive. I believe that to be an appalling misjudgment.” (A Secure Base, page 13)

Bowlby’s attachment theory calls us to remember what it means to be human, to intrinsically long for connection with others. For an infant, attachment is a means of protection; for the young adult, less so; but for everyone, attaching is the key to giving and receiving love.

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: attachment, attachment theory, parents, relationships

Book Review: Hispanic Parental Engagement

March 25, 2015

Dr. Lourdes Ferrer
Dr. Lourdes Ferrer

I recently came across the book, Hispanic Parental Involvement book by Dr. Lourdes Ferrer. Dr. Lourdes is an education consultant and speaker and has more than thirty years of experience as a mother, teacher, school administrator, and education consultant. This vast experience has convinced her that our public education system functions at its best when parents are part of their children’s academic lives.

Hispanic Parental Involvement by Dr. Lourdes Ferrer
Hispanic Parental Involvement by Dr. Lourdes Ferrer

In her book Hispanic Parental Involvement, she specifically addresses the need for parental involvement in education within Hispanic communities. However, much of what she writes is universal and speaks to all parents. At the beginning of the book, Dr. Ferrer recounts how Hispanic students she spoke with cited lack of parental involvement and support as a main explanation for their poor education performance.

In exploring this, Ferrer makes sure to clarify that generally this lack of parental involvement is not a lack of love but rather a lack of knowledge. Many parents in question don’t really know how to navigate the complexities of America’s education system. It’s also true that some don’t see or fully realize the value of education. (pages 9-10)

The book shares ten competencies that Parents and Schools can work towards in order to improve outcomes:

  1. Value Kid’s Education
  2. Meet Kid’s Needs
  3. Overcome Immigrant Challenges
  4. Maintain Family Unity
  5. Understand Their Role
  6. Believe In Their Children
  7. Connect with Teachers
  8. Make Reading a Lifestyle
  9. Make Homework a Routine
  10. Build Kid’s Character

Dr. Lourdes uses the analogy of a tricycle to explore the roles of child, parents, and teachers in education:

tricycle
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trike_02.svg

Students are the front (big) wheel. “The same way that the front wheel determines the direction of the tricycle, the students’ needs determine the course of action to help them reach academic proficiency in their academic subjects.” (pg. 85)

Parents and teachers are the two back-wheels, connected, that provide support and balance. “Parents and teachers must work collaboratively to provide students the kind of support and balance they need to reach their maximum potential and contribute to society.” (pg. 86)

Parents are essential especially in providing support. Dr. Ferrer writes:

Parents can better support their children’s education when they believe in their children’s ability to learn; expect their children to achieve academic success; and develop a good understanding of how children can reach proficiency in any academic subject.

Check out her book on Amazon.com visit her website and follow her on Twitter.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Parental Engagement Tagged With: book review, Dr. Lourdes Ferrer, hispanic, parental engagement, relationships

eBook Review: The House of Morgan

March 14, 2011

If I had purchased this as a “real” book instead of an ebook it would still be on my shelf. Fortunately I bought the kindle version and couldn’t tell how long it was. I purchased the book based on the recommendation of the Forbes list, “The 20 most influential business books.” I reading it and after what seemed like a small eternity I looked down and saw that I was 1% of the way through the book. But by that time I was hooked and kept on reading.

I read the first 20% of the book on my iPad and finished on my kindle. As an aside I like reading on both but the eInk display makes it easier to read for hours at a time.

Back to the review. The House of Morgan is fantastic and an excellent read. That is of course if you enjoy learning about “An American Banking Dynasty and the rise of Modern Finance”. Ron Chernow spent years researching this epic treatise and I am glad he did. I learned more about finance, banks, bankers and government regulations in this one book than I have by regularly reading the Wall Street Journal. And as a side note the WSJ make a heck of a lot more sense after reading this book and learning the history behind the various companies.

Anyone who wants to learn about the present needs to first learn about the past. As Seymour Morris Jr. said in “American History Revisited” “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme”. If you get the chance and are interested in the subject matter then read this book it will be well worth your time and I highly recommend it.

Here are a few of my highlighted portions of the book:

Their strategy was to make clients feel accepted into a private club, as if a Morgan account were a membership card to the aristocracy.

The bank won’t soil its white gloves with just anybody’s cash,

Like many who have overcome early hardship by brute force, he was proud but insecure, always at war with the world and counting his injuries.

“When the streets of Paris are running with blood, I buy.”

telescopic philanthropy—bountiful love for abstract humanity combined with extreme stinginess toward the individuals he knew personally.

Mexico was a resource-rich country that always held out a seductive promise of prosperity,

“an institution is the lengthened shadow of a man,”

“The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try if you can to belong to the first class, there is far less competition.”

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Lifelong Learning Tagged With: banking, book, display, ebook, eink, house of morgan, ipad, kindle, quotes, review, ron chernow

Book Review: “The Fragrance of God”

June 5, 2009

I recently purchased and read “The Fragrance of God” after listening to an interview with the author Vigen Guroian on NPR.

“The Fragrance of God” is an excellent little book that highlights the importance of returning to the garden. One point that Guroian raises is the sense of smell as a better descriptor of our relationship with God. Of all the senses, smell is the most elusive and the most real.

The book reads like a garden, earthy, real, beautiful and worth taking a walk in.

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life And who isadequate for these things? ( 2 Cor 2:15-16)

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: book review, fragrance of god, theology, vigan guroian

My Grandfather’s Son

December 5, 2007

I recently finished a great book and had to share it with you.

“My Grandfather’s Son” The memoirs of Clarence Thomas.

Real, is the best descriptive word for this book. Thomas writes of his growing up, coming to age, political activism and journey to the supreme court with a brutal honesty and reality that takes you along on the journey of his life.

He expresses his faults, joys and sorrows as well as his thoughts so well that you can actually see his progression of belief and what events caused him to see different sides to each story.

The book is the best book I’ve read this year and highly recommend you go beg, borrow, buy a copy and read it yourself. It also makes a great Christmas gift 🙂

Filed Under: Book Reviews

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