Samuel Blumenfeld is without question one of the most trenchant and influential education writers of our day. The education establishment, does not accord him such distinction. To them he is anathema - a pariah to be contemptuously ignored. That is certainly to his credit. Yet, the education establishment is unable to ignore Mr. Blumenfeld. His books, articles, seminars, public speeches, and regular appearances on radio and television programs make that impossible. He is, perhaps, best known for his excellent expose's, Is Public Education Necessary? and NEA: Trojan Horse In American Education, both of which sent shockwaves nationwide through that establishment. In those two seminal books, he made available to the general public for the first time a scholarly yet readable history of American education that explained how we devolved from the best-educated nation in the history of the world to "a nation at risk" - barely able to compete academically with "third-world" countries. In short, he exposed the education establishment for the pernicious fraud that it is. This exposure has created a dilemma for conscientious parents. They know what is `wrong in education, but they are at a loss over what to do about it. They feel particularly impotent in the area of teaching basic academic skills. The education establishment "experts" have quite successfully arrogated that province as their own exclusive domain and have enshrouded it in mystery not to be understood by the uninitiated.
Fortunately for us, Blumenfeld has addressed this issue as well. As usual, he has done a splendid job of it. Actually, his writings have been, from the very beginning, more concerned with solutions - offering parents and teachers practical, concrete assistance - than with criticism of the many glaring faults of our public school system. His first book, How To Start Your Own School - and Why You Need One, published in 1972, helped to launch today's burgeoning private school movement. The following year his book, The New Illiterates and How To Keep Your Child from Becoming One, was published, providing parents with an excellent guide to systematic phonics instruction. That same year he came out with his third book, How To Tutor.
Many parents have found This book to be a Godsend.
Back to the Basics From the practical standpoint of em- powering parents to take back control of their children's schooling, How To Tutor is the most important of Blumenfeld's six superb books on education. With this slim volume, anyone who can read can teach the 3 R's. In 117 easy-to-follow lessons, Blumenfeld takes you step-by-step from the alphabet through vowel and consonant blends, to irregular word spellings and pronunciations. He has organized the sequential lessons exceptionally well and capably explains why this exercise follows that, and why a particular pedagogical method is faulty and another is sound. He has a clear understanding of the learning process, how the mind works. He anticipates the questions that both student and tutor may have. His systematic phonics course will work for illiterate adults as well as for children.
"Of the three R's," says Mr. Blumenfeld, "writing has been the most neglected in the elementary school curriculum for the last thirty years Despite the pronouncements of some educators to the contrary, he believes that "cursive writing is one of the indispensable tools of literacy... and it should be taught to every child thoroughly and systematically from grade one onward."
He then covers the proper procedure for teaching penmanship, from selecting the right pencil and paper to dotting the is and crossing the ts. Arid for the southpaws, instead of throwing them a curve he provides special coaching that will help get them to first base. In the past several years, a number of major studies have pointed out the alarming decline in American students' mathematical skills. The reason for this is quite plain, says Blumenfeld. As in the areas of reading and writing, today's youngsters are not being given a proper foundation. They do not master basic arithmetic before moving on to more advanced and more abstract mathematical concepts. In 67 lessons, Blumenfeld takes the tutor and student in a natural progression from counting through basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, to fractions, decimals, money, and then to measurements of time, weight, liquid and distance.
The beauty of this book is that it makes it all so very simple and straightforward - and it works! Many parents and professional teachers have found it to be a Godsend. There is no reason for parents to fret that their children may be academically shortchanged. Whether their children are being home-schooled or taught in an institutional setting, by utilizing this one volume, parents can guarantee that their offspring will be able to read, write, and compute proficiently. Mothers who need to supplement the family income without leaving the home will find in How To Tutor all they need to know to start a thriving home business. Tutoring several students a week, they can earn a respectable wage while helping to solve our national illiteracy problem. Elementary school teachers and remedial instructors too will find this book to be an indispensable classroom aid.
-WILLIAM F. JASPER - New American 1986