Book Tag from Steph at Sweet Water Journal

I've been "tagged" by Steph to do the following:

1. Find the nearest book.
2. Name the book & the author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page. (Aside: Fifth full sentence? That's what I'm assuming.) Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.
5. Tag three more folks.

I can do everything except tag three more folks (I don't know any other bloggers!)

Here goes...

_The Knowledge Deficit: Closing the Shocking Education Gap for American Children_ by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

"The states therefore need to agree with one another on a core of specifics. To do this, they will have to follow sounder principles than those that have produced current state standards. Current principles righteously proclaim their own virtue in being vague because they nurture the differences among children, leave freedom for the teacher and the district, and proclaim a commitment to "deeper" aims like critical thinking and understanding."

I haven't actually gotten as far as page 123, but this is a good book if you are interested in learning how and why the public school system is producing students who are able to do little more than take standardized tests. Hirsch (the author of _Cultural Literacy_) argues that a large part of the problem with current mechanisms of American education is that students are unaware of cultural references (critical thinking) and that all of the rote memorization of "reading skills" (whole language, etc) is actually doing more harm than good when it comes to learning the materials. Very interesting book!