BookMarks Top 5 Author Interviews for 2012

As the year winds down, Amy and I thought we’d pull together a Top 5 list from the past 12 months. And what could be a better topic than interviews with authors about their new K-12 education books? They give you a glimpse into authors’ thought processes, what their new research has uncovered, and what the future holds.

As such, here are the five most-read interviews from the past year in BookMarks:

1. The most popular interview was BookMarks’ two-part conversation with the Khan Academy’s founder, Salman Khan, which coincided with the launch of his book The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined (Twelve, 2012). The first part of the interview covered Khan’s motivation for writing the book and where kids that are uninterested in learning fit into the picture, and the second part covered the practical next steps to redefining education, his critics, and (my favorite part of the book) learning-by-doing games.
2. The second most popular interview was BookMarks’ conversation with Lisa Delpit, author of “Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children (The New Press, 2012). We covered a range of topics, including race, poverty, and teaching in inner-city schools.
3. The third-place spot is held by Yong Zhao, for our conversation about his proposal for a new education paradigm, which he details in World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students (Corwin, 2012).
4. Coming in fourth in our most-read author interview list was Jessica Klein’s book on bullying and school shootings, The Bully Society (New York University Press, 2012). While little is known at the moment about what motivated the shooter in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012, the ideas of bullying and school violence are closely intertwined, as Klein detailed.
5. My e-conversation with Chester Finn, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in Washington, and a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, covered his new book Exam Schools: Inside America’s Most Selective Public High Schools (Princeton University Press, 2012) and rounds out our Top 5 interviews list. Written with education consultant Jessica A. Hockett, the book examines the academically selective, public high schools that students must test into.

And there you have it! The Top 5 most-read interviews from the last year, collected together for your reading pleasure.

We hope you all have a happy, and healthy, new year.

Best,

Cathy and Amy