Recommended Reading (for grownups)
I love to read and often come across books that I think others would enjoy as well. The books below are either science or education related.
Ms. Smith
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
from the book flap:
“In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, Elisabeth Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her encounter with a Neohelix albolabris – a common woodland snail.
While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mysterious creature brings and comes to a greater understanding of her own confined place in the world.
Intrigued by the snail’s molluscan anatomy, cryptic defenses, clear decision making, hydraulic locomotion, and mysterious courtship activities, Bailey becomes an astute and amused observer, offering a candid and engaging book into the curious life of this underappreciated small animal.
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a remarkable journey of survival and resilience, showing us how a small part of the natural world illuminates our own human existence and provides an appreciation of what it means to be fully alive.
The Way of Boys: Raising Healthy Boys in a Challenging and Complex World by Anthony Rao, Ph.D
from the book flap:
In a book that’s part advice and part expose, psychologist and expert on boyhood development Dr. Anthony Rao challenges some of the potentially harmful assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors we’ve developed toward young boyhood over the last few decades. This is not an indictment of medication therapies – some important instances, Dr. Rao argues that medication is appropriate and necessary. Rather, The Way of Boys is a celebration of natural, constructive boyhood development and an expert, definitive handbook on what to look for and expect in normal growth.
Boys are being bombarded with a slew of diagnoses – ADHD, Asperger’s, bipolar disorder – at an alarming rate and at younger ages. The Way of Boys urges parents, educators, pediatricians, psychologists, and other developmental experts to reevaluate and significantly change how we deal with our youngest boys.
It’s time we stopped trying to “fix” young boys. When parents understand the wide spectrum for normal boy development, they can successfully communicate with their son – and everyone in their son’s life – and help him grow into a healthy, smart, strong man.
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
From the book flap:
“I like to play indoors better ‘cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are,” reports a fourth-grader. Never before in history have children been so plugged-in – and so out of touch with the natural world. In this groundbreaking new work, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation – he calls it nature deficit – to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as rises in obesity, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and depression.
Some startling facts: By the 1990s the radius around the home where children were allowed to roam on their own had shrunk to a ninth of what it had been in 1970. Today, average eight-year-olds are better able to identify cartoon characters than native species, such as beetles and oak trees, in their own community. The rate at which doctors prescribe antidepressants to children has doubled in the last five years, and recent studies show that too much computer use spells trouble for the developing mind.
Nature-deficit disorder is not a medical condition; it is a description of the human costs of alienation from nature. This alienation damages children and shapes adults, families, and communities. There are solutions, though, and they’re right in our own backyards. Last Child in the Woods is the first book to bring together cutting-edge research showing that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development – physical, emotional, and spiritual. What’s more, nature is a potent therapy for depression, obesity, and ADD. Environment-based education dramatically improves standardized test scores and grade point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Even creativity is stimulated by childhood experiences in nature.
Yet sending kids outside to play in increasingly difficult. Computers, television, and video games compete for their time, of course, but it’s also our fears of traffic, strangers, even virus-carrying mosquitoes – fears the media exploit – that keep children indoors. Meanwhile, schools assign more and more homework, and there is less and less access to natural areas.
Parents have the power to ensure that their daughter or son will not be the “last child in the woods,” and this book is the first step toward that nature-child reunion.
Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist edited by John Brockman
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
Doing What Scientists Do: Children Learn to Investigate Their World by Ellen Doris
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