Novices might be lost in this discussion of Buddhism and education.
A comprehensive guide to a Buddhist-based universal education.
The author, who uses the pen name SAMO, is nothing if not ambitious; the subtitle of this book calls it a “framework to redefine universal education,” and the work explores Buddhist concepts over more than 500 pages. The author draws connections between education, virtue, and wisdom. SAMO in fact identifies Five Illuminating Wisdoms: linguistic clarity, artisanal enlightenment, medical insight, casual intuition, and inner enlightenment (“the universal light of education because it is adaptable to all levels of education.”) The first chapter of the book outlines a history of the study of Five Illuminating Wisdoms—subsequent chapters are dedicated to, among other things, the Five Illuminating Wisdoms as they relate to the theoretical foundation of education, the practical methods of education, and the practical value of education in secular society. The final chapter details how “The Link between Buddha Dharma and the Study of Five Illuminating Wisdoms is the Ultimate in Human Education.” But the book doesn’t end there; the text includes 40 pages of annotations that further explore the sometimes-difficult-to-follow concepts that SAMO has introduced throughout the book. The work appears to be comprehensive and well researched, though that’s difficult for readers not steeped in Buddhism and SAMO’s concepts to fully determine—the layperson is going to be lost from the get-go. However, this may serve as a guidebook for people who have been introduced to these concepts and want to learn more. (Having an expert on hand to lead them through the work would be a great help, particularly when it comes to understanding the basic tenets of what SAMO is writing about.) The author appears to assume readers have a significant basis of knowledge of these difficult theories, but many are sure to get lost along the way. There is some fascinating stuff here—it just isn’t presented in such a way to allow the average reader to understand it.
Novices might be lost in this discussion of Buddhism and education.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9798308534594
Page Count: 569
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This guide to Black culture for White people is accessible but rarely easy.
A former NFL player casts his gimlet eye on American race relations.
In his first book, Acho, an analyst for Fox Sports who grew up in Dallas as the son of Nigerian immigrants, addresses White readers who have sent him questions about Black history and culture. “My childhood,” he writes, “was one big study abroad in white culture—followed by studying abroad in black culture during college and then during my years in the NFL, which I spent on teams with 80-90 percent black players, each of whom had his own experience of being a person of color in America. Now, I’m fluent in both cultures: black and white.” While the author avoids condescending to readers who already acknowledge their White privilege or understand why it’s unacceptable to use the N-word, he’s also attuned to the sensitive nature of the topic. As such, he has created “a place where questions you may have been afraid to ask get answered.” Acho has a deft touch and a historian’s knack for marshaling facts. He packs a lot into his concise narrative, from an incisive historical breakdown of American racial unrest and violence to the ways of cultural appropriation: Your friend respecting and appreciating Black arts and culture? OK. Kim Kardashian showing off her braids and attributing her sense of style to Bo Derek? Not so much. Within larger chapters, the text, which originated with the author’s online video series with the same title, is neatly organized under helpful headings: “Let’s rewind,” “Let’s get uncomfortable,” “Talk it, walk it.” Acho can be funny, but that’s not his goal—nor is he pedaling gotcha zingers or pleas for headlines. The author delivers exactly what he promises in the title, tackling difficult topics with the depth of an engaged cultural thinker and the style of an experienced wordsmith. Throughout, Acho is a friendly guide, seeking to sow understanding even if it means risking just a little discord.
This guide to Black culture for White people is accessible but rarely easy.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-80046-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
American schools at every level, from kindergarten to postgraduate programs, have substituted ideological indoctrination for education, charges conservative think-tanker Sowell (Senior Fellow/Hoover Institution; Preferential Polices, 1990, etc.) in this aggressive attack on the contemporary educational establishment. Sowell's quarrel with "values clarification" programs (like sex education, death-sensitizing, and antiwar "brainwashing") isn't that he disagrees with their positions but, rather, that they divert time and resources from the kind of training in intellectual analysis that makes students capable of reasoning for themselves. Contending that the values clarification programs inspired by his archvillain, psychotherapist Carl Rogers, actually inculcate values confusion, Sowell argues that the universal demand for relevance and sensitivity to the whole student has led public schools to abdicate their responsibility to such educational ideals as experience and maturity. On the subject of higher education, Sowell moves to more familiar ground, ascribing the declining quality of classroom instruction to the insatiable appetite of tangentially related research budgets and bloated athletic programs (to which an entire chapter, largely irrelevant to the book's broader argument, is devoted). The evidence offered for these propositions isn't likely to change many minds, since it's so inveterately anecdotal (for example, a call for more stringent curriculum requirements is bolstered by the news that Brooke Shields graduated from Princeton without taking any courses in economics, math, biology, chemistry, history, sociology, or government) and injudiciously applied (Sowell's dismissal of student evaluations as responsible data in judging a professor's classroom performance immediately follows his use of comments from student evaluations to document the general inadequacy of college teaching). All in all, the details of Sowell's indictment—that not only can't Johnny think, but "Johnny doesn't know what thinking is"—are more entertaining than persuasive or new.
Pub Date: Jan. 4, 1993
ISBN: 0-02-930330-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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