Some Advice for My Critics
I have been more than thrilled by the response to my new book. Today it is #10 on theNew York Times best seller list, next week it will be #15. My guess is that as more educators and parents read it, they will recommend it to others. I hope they will form study groups to discuss the issues it raises. My hope was to provide indisputable facts about where we are, and research-based evidence about what we need to do to improve our schools and our society-not one first, then the other, but both.
As you might expect, the book is controversial because it disputes the popular narrative that our schools are failing and broken, that we must do all sorts of things that have never been done before, must test more often, more than any other nation in the world, must fire teachers and principals, lay off guidance counselors, social workers and librarians, eliminate the arts to make more time for testing, and close schools. And if we do all these things,
