Learning Strategies

Yesterday we held our regular first-Wednesday-of-the-month professional development activity. This time it was a planning session for an event three months hence — a day based on Tracy Kidder’s latest book, Mountains Beyond Mountains. (This book comes with two slightly different subtitles: the original hard-cover is subtitled Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, whereas the paperback is subtitled The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World. I’m sure there’s some inscrutable purpose behind the publisher’s decision to change the subtitle.)

Anyway, this book comes enthuasiastically recommended by member of Weston High School’s book club; in fact, “enthuasiastically” is really too mild a word. Published reviews were equally filled with praise. Through the generous support of the Weston Educational Enrichment Fund and an external foundation, copies have been donated to all of our faculty and students.

You can probably read some significance into the fact that Tracy Kidder, George W. Bush, Dick Wolf (“Law & Order”), Bill Littlefield (“Only a Game”), and I all attended the same high school at the same time: Kidder was class of 1963, Bush and Wolf were ’64, I was ’65, and Littlefield was ’66. That means of the 900 or so students attending PA in the spring of 1963, four eventually became famous. Somehow I expected more than a paltry half of one percent.

That’s the prelude. Substance will follow, after I’ve had a chance to read the book. I’ve never been a devotee of reviewing books before I’ve read them.

Labels: books, Weston