Square Peg: My Story and What It Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries, and Out-of-the-Box Thinkers
Release date: 2013 / 256 pages
Synopsis(from Amazon): In the seventh grade, Todd Rose was suspended—not for the first time—for throwing six stink bombs at the blackboard, where his art teacher stood with his back to the class. At eighteen, he was a high school dropout, stocking shelves at a department store for $4.25 an hour. Today, Rose is a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education...
Review: As a former high school teacher for fifteen years and current online facilitator for an associate’s program, I have read many books on educational reform. One element they (and everyone who’s ever been a student) agrees on is that the prevalent paradigm of traditional education no longer serves students in an effective and productive way. What distinguishes Square Peg is that it is both a book about reform AND a memoir – about how the author, L. Todd Rose, morphed from a high school dropout with a “rap sheet” a mile long to a Harvard graduate and professor.
Square Peg starts with a few of Rose’s most notorious high jinks and a diagnosis of ADHD and then demonstrates how a “series of at first seemingly random, yet always interrelated, circumstances and events” led him to great success. This alone would have resulted in an engaging and fascinating memoir – but a parent’s anguished plea for help with her own troubled son, also diagnosed with ADHD, led Rose to embark on finding a way to share his story in a way that would help others.
In Square Peg, Rose focuses on how the study of complex systems and recent neuroscience research can help parents and teachers better serve every student. In fact, when I finished this memoir, I wanted to give it to all of my friends who have children – none of whom have been diagnosed with ADHD. Rose explains convincingly how the role of context, emotion, and feedback loops are crucial to supporting any child’s journey to success. His own story is remarkable and inspiring, but any parent could benefit from Rose’s research — and the epilogue on recent educational advances that should better serve the needs of every child are not only fascinating, but will provide a benchmark for evaluating any school district’s innovation and dedication to current educational trends.
Square Peg is both informational and inspirational – as well as a darn good read – and will find it’s place on the shelves of educational reform and hopefully by the bedside of every parent.
Interested in winning a copy? Drop me a comment below!
And be sure to check out the other stops on the tour, too:
Monday, February 4th: Life Unfocused
Tuesday, February 5th: Two Bears Farm and the Three Cubs
Wednesday, February 6th: She Treads Softly
Thursday, February 7th: Overstuffed
Friday, February 8th: Book Club Classics!
Monday, February 11th: Family Volley
Tuesday, February 12th: Attention Deficit Whatever
Wednesday, February 13th: Misbehavin’ Librarian
Thursday, February 14th: Positive Thinking and ADHD
Friday, February 15th: Smart Kids with LD
Monday, February 18th: Earnest Parenting
Tuesday, February 19th: Pragmatic Mom
Wednesday, February 20th: Book Snob
Thursday, February 21st: Luxury Reading
Monday, February 25th: There’s a Book
Wednesday, February 27th: Stiletto Storytime
As a retired teacher, I am still interested in kids and what we can do to improve our schools. Count me as one who wants to read this book.
Thanks.
We have 5 grandsons. Enough said!
My son does well in school but there ARE areas where he struggles and I’m sure i get get some helpful tips from this book.
Thanks for being a part of the tour!
Am definitely going to read this book and suggest it to some teacher friends and parents as well. Anyone will practical suggestions for teaching based on personal experience has my vote.
My husband has been a special ed teacher and administrator for 41 years and I’m sure would like to read this.
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