Only Connect: The Way to Save Our Schools

by Rudolph Crew and Thomas Dyja

"An inspiring new vision for America's public schools from one of the nation's top educators" American fourth graders score twelfth in the world in math skills, after Latvia and Hungary. Our eighth graders are fifteenth, below Malaysia and Slovakia. And by the time they're fifteen years old, our students have slipped off the map--to twenty-fourth place internationally. If these stats don't make you angry or ashamed or plain sad, then at the very least...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374294011
• ISBN13: 9780374294014
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Read this book if you care about education

Dr. Crew's book is a fantasy of my deepest desires. Heartfelt, from someone whom has been in the trenches for 14 years, his strategy is not only common-sense he builds a path which could lead to America's salvation. My personal credo is "We did not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we are borrowing it from our children.--Native American Wisdom" Dr. Crew seems to be one of the few in a position of authority, committed to change that understands what this means.

dreams

Rudy Crew's book is filled with dreams of how to get others to work for success. If it were not for his emphasis on a federal view of education instead of a state's rights view of education, it would rate five stars.

Educator

"Only Connect" is a must read and highly recommended. It is thought-provoking, insightful, and very informative. For parents, it underlines the important role they have in their children's education. For anyone who is concerned about the plight of American education, "Only Connect" lays out a plan for ensuring that all children graduate with the skills and knowledge necessary to compete in a global economy. What's truly unique about "Only Connect" is how Dr. Crew brilliantly uses a story-telling style that engages the reader and makes what could have been just another policy book into a real page turner.

Telling it like it is

This book is a very readable mix of the experiences of an accomplished educator, a well-raised son, and a father with whom any parent could empathize. Rudy Crew gives a solid accounting of what ails public schools and gives us a prescription that will work if only we have the courage to follow it -- all of us, not just some of us. He takes a commendable big view, extolling things like arts education and civic awareness and not simply the 3Rs. We'd be better off if more school leaders had the clarity of vision found here and if more parents had the singlemindness of Crew's father Eugene. If you want to understand the complex solution to problems that too often seem intractable, this is a book to read.

An Unbelievably Fabulous Book

I teach at Stanford Business School and have had the privilege of having Rudy Crew come to my class. This book is like hearing him speak. It is filled with passion and compassion, with facts, common sense ideas, and the remarkable insights of a gifted teacher, administrator, and leader. It speaks not just to issues of schools and education but to concerns that matter to society, to social justice, to philanthropy, to politics. Beautifully written, it is both a personal story and a story of what might be possible in America today, as well as what is currently going on, and why. It is one of the best books I have ever read because of its remarkable combination of wisdom, evidence, and direct language and thinking. If you have children, if you know children, or if you just care about the future of the U.S., you ought to read this book--and then take some action.