,
6 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
I know nothing about Paul Tough’s new book, but every time How Children Succeed is spoken of as influential, I wish people were told that he got a lot of things wrong about education and “success.” nytimes.com/2019/09/03/opi…
In fact, Tough wrote a sequel “Helping Children Succeed” that was a kind of corrective, though much of that information was available at the time of the first book.
It’s entirely possible that I’ll agree with much of this new book, but it’s interesting to see how connections to power like a NYTimes columnist gets your ideas immediately into the conversation. (Yes, this is a little bit of sour grapes about Why They Can’t Write.)
Tough’s first book launched a lot of bad policy much aided by the media uncritically relaying his argument. Lots of people in education at the time had other takes. Those critics were right.
I think Tough’s new book deserves coverage, but it needs to be better than a Frank Bruni infomercial. I’m sure I’ll read it at some point, and in this case, I’ll hopefully have a perspective that can add to the discussion.
I’ll say this much, that if Tough’s book isn’t citing @saragoldrickrab and @tressiemcphd’s books, it’s a problem.
