Square Peg
My Story and What It Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries, and Out-of-the-Box Thinkers
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- €11.99
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- €11.99
Publisher Description
In the seventh grade, Todd Rose was suspended-not for the first time-for throwing six stink bombs at the blackboard, where his art teacher stood with his back to the class. At eighteen, he was a high school dropout, stocking shelves at a department store for $4.25 an hour. Today, Rose is a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Square Peg illuminates the struggles of millions of bright young children -- and their frustrated parents and teachers--who are stuck in a one-size-fits-all school system that fails to approach the student as an individual. Rose shares his own incredible journey from troubled childhood to Harvard, seamlessly integrating cutting-edge research in neuroscience and psychology along with advances in the field of education, to ultimately provide a roadmap for parents and teachers of kids who are the casualties of America's antiquated school system.
With a distinguished blend of humor, humility, and practical advice for nurturing children who are a poor fit in conventional schools, Square Peg is a game-changing manifesto that provides groundbreaking insight into how we can get the most out of all the students in our classrooms, and why today's dropouts could be tomorrow's innovators.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This approachable, inspiring tale serves as both a memoir of a troubled childhood and a road map for helping children of all "variabilities" through the American educational system. Writing with Ellison (Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention), Rose shares his unlikely trajectory from childhood delinquent of "diabolical naughtiness" through high school dropout to Harvard professor at the Graduate School of Education. He provides compelling anecdotal evidence for how our public schools are failing our kids, as well as a framework for what educators and parents could be doing better. Each chapter concludes with a "Big Idea" section as summary and a list of "Action Items" for parents. Rose presents behavior as something that "emerges from the interaction of a person's biology, past experiences, and immediate context," arguing that within this understanding of complex systems, there's hope for all. Readers will find Rose's journey heartening; Rose's mother and grandmother show how essential parents and mentors can be for struggling children. But this story serves as more than just a beacon of hope, as Rose also leaves his readers armed with real "strategies and tools," such as using technology, readdressing labels such as ADHD, "rethinking Ritalin," finding mentors, understanding metacognition and variability, and the "potentially transformative power of context."
