Barbara Clark (2) (1931–)

I'm sadden to say that this is one of the most horrible book I've ever opened.

Presentation.
The font and presentation of the text is simply horrible. Lines are about 90 characters long, and many pages do not have even ONE paragraph break.

Style.
Aside that many sections are totally ghost written with inconsistency in style, the written style is overly cloudy, with sections that pass for "smart" because it uses big words, and at the same time, sections that use elementary school language.

Content.
Barbara Clark has ONE opinion that prevails, and nothing will shake her position. She's the rude, racist white american supremacist and you'd better agree with it because it's not negociable.

Politics / ethics.
Although it looks like Barbara Clark has never attended an history class in her life, she does an excellent job at cloning some *unacceptable in our civilization* ideas from past (and current) totalitarian regimes.
According to Barbara Clark, society MUST train and use all the potential in our children brains to maintain the United States economic status, and eventually save the planet by spreading our ideas.
The integrity of the book is further undermined by multiple sophisms, chapter after chapter. ((I'm ok reading controversial books when the integrity and honesty is respected - both of them are lacking here)).

Nature/Nurture
Barbara Clark has only one non negociable position - that of children are born with unlimited potential. ALL children have the potential to be gifted and it's the patriotic duty of parents and educators to MAKE IT HAPPEN. At times, her book becomes hilarious when she explains that to develop your child brain you MUST move the crib around in the child's bedroom at least once a month and you MUST change at the same time the art work on the walls which MUST be famous art/museum posters.
Vice versa, she's adamant that if your child doesn't qualify for GATE, it's 100% the fault of the parents who are obviously untrained, un american, un concerned by the future of their child etc.

Usefulness for the reader
If you are a parent, skip it. There is NO way you can hold the standard and all you can guarantee is to destroy any hope of ENJOYING your child as a precious, precious gift from above.
If you are an educator, skip it - please - for the sake of your students .. Insulting children because they don't perform as expected from the 234.345.876 neurones in their little box upstairs is not going to help them, nor you.
If you are anybody in psychology or medicine, skip it, since this is a horribly 20th (and 19th) century colonialist view on WASP brain supremacy and other outdated phrenology.

Am I harsh? I would if I actually acted on my urge to tear each page and have a bonfire in the garden!

Quotes (that represents part of my review - my book is covered with notes on each page. I can post dozens more)
p. 5 "The fullest achievement of each person must be encouraged, not only for the well-being of the individual, but also for the benefit of all humankind."
p 20 "elitism is entirely justifiable and proper for the benefit of society as a whole"
p 58 "we would have the assurance that society would be blessed with a continuous supply of gifted adults"

I have to stop there .. the last quote would drive anybody over the edge. BLESSED? CONTINUOUS? SUPPLY? are we in a Sci-Fi B-movie?

DON'T BUY, DON'T READ.… (más)