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(More customer reviews)Do you have any idea how much easier my life would have been? An incredible book, it points out the irony that of all the things we are taught and study in school the one thing we don't study is perhaps the most important of all: HOW TO STUDY!
I am an intelligent person, but I have never done well in school. An occasional A, a more common B, and often Cs or less. What a surprise to read this book and find that I actually have what the author terms the "attitude of a smart student." This attitude is comprised of a love of learning, a willingness to learn, and the knowledge that no one teaches you better than you teach yourself -- because we all learn in different ways, and only we know how we learn best.
There is a difference, however, between being a smart person and a smart student. Attitude alone is not enough to succeed in the school game if you do not know all the rules. "A smart student knows that school is a game, but it is an important game," writes the author. And one of the most obvious, and most denied, rules is that there is nothing more subjective and biased than grading. This author points out that grades can even be based on how a student dresses, where a student sits, and the teacher's personal opinion of a student. For example, if you have a good reputation as an "A student" but do the same on a project as someone with a bad reputation as an "F student," you will often be graded according to your earned reputation. "All students make mistakes," teachers will often reason, "This is an `A student' mistake and can be excused." For the student who has established an "F student" reputation, the same mistake will be seen in light of his grade history and he will be graded accordingly.
Important in establishing a reputation as a "good student," this author says, is making a good impression early in the course. Dress well, sit near the front of the class, work extra hard on the first few assignments. Teachers are people, people with egos, and they need to be appeased just like anyone else -- which is why arguing openly with teachers, even when you know they are wrong, is not advised unless you want your grade to suffer.
Another unwritten rule of school, a philosophy most teachers and institutions are based on but according to the author they would deny, is the idea that students are not even particularly interested in learning. What's more, textbooks are terribly written and are designed for sales: as many texts to as many schools as possible is the objective, not accessibility or user-friendliness, and often not even correct information (texts are plagued with inaccuracies). This results in watered-down, information-dense tomes that are virtually impenetrable and can kill the student's spirit. The author shows us how to get around this by taking a typically boring and hellish passage about igneous rocks and teaching us how to approach the paragraphs. Underlining and highlighting teaches you how to underline and highlight. What you need to do is actively involve yourself in what you are reading, keep the main themes in mind, and connect the major ideas. Ask yourself questions. Ask the book questions. And key to understanding and internalizing information is 'translating' what you have learned into your own personalized every day language. Put it in "your own words."
I love this book because I respect the author's candor.
This book closes with an open letter to students, parents, teachers, and administrators. In this letter the author admits why he really wrote this book: because he hates what schools do to students, the way it batters their egos and places them in something of a caste system of intelligence, and then will even graduate students who are illiterate simply because they want them out of their face. Schools are mind-control factories that chip away at the students' self-esteem and self-initiative by thrusting him in the "passive" position of sitting in class and being "spoon fed" (author's words) an education. But despite the current crisis in education, this author notes, many schools think they are doing just fine. Schools are businesses, he says, and the objective of a business is to stay in business. They do this year after year by refreshing the student body with new freshmens and graduating the older students. Then the rest of the nation has to pick up the pieces. But it's not entirely the fault of schools, Mr. Robinson says. Students need to take an active role in their own education (despite the fact that what schools teach is passivity), take responsibility for their learning, and enjoy the ride.
The irony, he says, is that smart students enjoy learning, spend less time studying, don't fixate on grades, and usually get the highest marks.
This book encourages the love of learning, not the paranoia of grades.
I am thankful to this book for saying what learning institutions will never admit to: that they don't care about me, so I have to. School is a game and if you want to succeed in it you will need someone to teach you how to play. This book does just that. Whether in grade school, high school, or college, this book will help.
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