Reviews for The Call to Brilliance
by Resa Steindel Brown
"Resa Steindel Brown's
The Call to Brilliance is a rare life-changing work. As much
a personal story about an amazing family as it is philosophical treatise about
modern education, this book reveals what has gone so wrong in our schools and
takes you on a journey that reveals how to uncover the light of brilliance that
is inside our children. A practitioner and advocate of homeschooling, Brown
points out that public schools were designed for an industrial society to produce
conforming drones who don't mind endless tedium. She suggests that an entirely
new model is needed in order to unleash children's native creativity and curiosity
and help them become truly functioning adults. For parents, this is a must read."
-- Tad Cronn, Los Angeles Daily News columnist
"What an inspiration!
If this book had been available when my son was little, I might have
done a few things differently. But since he and his wife will be starting
a family soon, I know The Call to Brilliance will help them raise my
future grandchildren. Everyone complains about the school systems. Private schools
are expensive and have their own problems. Resa Steindel Brown's book gives
you alternatives. The book is inspiring and engaging. You'll love it, and hopefully,
it will open doors for you that you didn't even know were there."
-- Anonymous Review found on barnesandnoble.com
"Parents often comment that their children "don't come with
instructions," meaning that they find it challenging to figure out how
to meet the needs of their children. Thanks to Resa Steindel Brown's words
of wisdom and inspiration in her book, The Call to Brilliance, parents
now have instructions, and they read: Follow your children's cues.
The Call to Brilliance isn't just for parents.
Brown, both mother and educator, learned early on that educating children effectively
does not involve dictating to them the topics they should want to learn, forcing
them to sit still while they learn them, and then making them memorize irrelevant
lists and do lots of non-stimulating homework. Instead, the good teacher draws
out the child's inherent interests and strengths, and helps the child to develop
them. As Brown explains, the word "education" comes from the word "educe," meaning,
"to draw out (one's inherent knowledge)." Many authors have written about child
rearing and education, but not one book will tell a parent how to deal with
his or her particular child. Brown doesn't pretend to know all the answers in
"Brilliance." But her candid retelling of what has worked for her and her children,
simply by following their leads as well as her own loving and trusting heart,
helps parents to give themselves permission to relax. A parenting class probably
couldn't do a better job.
Brown writes the book in an autobiographical, sequential
way, starting with her first year in school and finishing in the present. Brown
remembers how her schools and classrooms looked, her impressions of teachers
and other students, and how she felt-from kindergarten to college. She intersperses
her life story with chapters on her multi-talented children-now accomplished
adults-as well as quotes from educators, psychologists and others.
One very inspiring quote comes from psychologist Dr.
Carl Rogers, who writes about trusting our inner voice and becoming the person
we're meant to be. "El Greco, for example, must have realized as he looked at
some of his early work, that 'good artists do not paint like that.' But somehow
he trusted his own experiencing of life, the process of himself, sufficiently
that he could go on expressing his own unique perceptions. It was as though
he could say, 'good artists do not paint like this, but I paint like this.'…"
One will find it difficult to put this book down. "Brilliance"
reads almost like a beautifully crafted novel, with inspirational, exciting,
and heart-warming stories and words on every page. The reader comes to care
about Brown and her family; he or she can't wait to begin the next chapter to
see how everyone turns out. Every person can benefit and grow from reading The
Call to Brilliance."
-- Brenda Goldstein, Independent Book Reviewer
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