Of General Interest
Child-Stress: Understanding and Answering Stress Signals of Infants, Children, and Teenagers, by Mary Susan Miller (Doubleday & Company, Inc., 245 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 10167; 264 pages, $14.95).
The first day of school, taking a mathematics test, competing for a position on the basketball team--these can be highly stressful situations for children of all ages, suggests the author, who has been a teacher, counselor, and principal and now runs the National Teacher of the Year program for Good Housekeeping magazine. In her three-part book, she examines the causes and implications of stress among children, a phenomenon she says has only recently begun to be taken seriously. She describes various anxiety-producing situations and ways in which youngsters manifest stress, and advises parents, teachers, and other adults on how to respond. “It is hoped that this book will put Mother Goose’s children--and our children--into the real world ... [where] they must cope,” Ms. Miller writes.
Family Choice in Schooling: Issues and Dilemmas, edited by Michael E. Manley-Casimir (Lexington Books, D.C. Heath and Company, 125 Spring St., Lexington, Mass. 02173; 224 pages, $22.95).
In this compilation of 15 original papers first presented at a May 1980 international symposium, “Family Choice, Schooling, and the Public Interest,” Mr. Manley-Casimir and other educators examine the leading issues surrounding the concept of educational options for families, including: parental and student choice, the client-school relationship in private schools, the advantages and disadvantages of tax credits and vouchers as “fiscal mechanisms for increasing family choice in schooling,” and the consequences of “the public monopoly” in schooling. The educators Stephen Arons, Richard L. Nault, Donald E. Frey, and Donald Fisher were also among the contributors to the symposium, which was jointly sponsored by Simon Fraser University and the British Columbia Council for Leadership in Educational Administration.
The Idea of I.Q., by Russell Marks (University Press of America, P.O. Box 19101, Washington, D.C. 20036; 320 pages, cloth $22.50, paper $12.25).
The claim that intelligence is genetic and nonmalleable and that it can be measured accurately by I.Q. tests is brought under fire by Mr. Marks. In this study (which is written in technical language), he maintains that, despite the fact that evolutionary theory, democratic capitalism, 19th-century science, and experimental methods have long supported the I.Q.-based concept of intelligence, it remains “conceptually confusing and empirically unwarranted.” The author, a freelance writer who was formerly a member of the faculty of Indiana University, attempts to prove his claims by examining the nature-nurture issue and educational and political reform. In addition, Mr. Marks seeks to remove the concept of I.Q. from its usual environment and to develop an “alternative formulation of intelligence.”
For Special Interests
Ability Testing of Handicapped People: Dilemma for Government, Science, and the Public, edited by Susan W. Sherman and Nancy M. Robinson (National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20418; 213 pages; paper $13.50).
The result of a study by the Panel on Testing of Handicapped People, this report addresses the “psychometric, social, legal, economic, and ethical issues” associated with the use of standardized tests in the screening of handicapped people for such purposes as college admissions and job selection.
Girls Are People Too!: A Bibliography of Nontraditional Female Roles in Children’s Books, by Joan E. Newman (Scarecrow Press, Inc., 52 Liberty St., P.O. Box 656, Metuchen, N.J. 08840; 203 pages; $12.50).
This bibliography lists children’s books in which females are portrayed in nontraditional roles. Presented as a reference tool for teachers, librarians, and parents, it is divided into categories: fiction/nonfiction and primary/intermediate age groups, with a list devoted to minority literature. The appendix provides a chronology of notable people and events in women’s history.
The School Sociologist: A Need and an Emergent Profession, by William M. Phillips Jr. (University Press of America, P.O. Box 19101, Washington, D.C. 20036; 272 pages, cloth $20.75, paper $11.00).
Mr. Phillips examines the role of the school sociologist and makes a strong case for the “urgent need of the educational enterprise for the profession of school sociologist.” The role and function of the sociologist and the relevance of sociological knowledge in addressing educational problems are also discussed.
Anne Bridgman
