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Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: As an former educator, I have seen first hand the poor state the education system is in today. Children are bored with standard teaching methods and the teachers are bound by what they can do to both pass the shcoolboards test requirements and keep the children interested. Dr Schank in Coloring Outside the Lines gives parents examples and insight in how to explore new ways to spark interest and excite young minds. Interest in subjects that the children will remember long after the test is over. I reccomeed this book to any parent that wants their child to be a survivor in todays schoolsystem and in life!
Rating: 
Summary: Schank is not outside the lines, but still messy.
Review: Great title, but the first thing I noticed while reading the book was that Schank doesn't experiment with creative spelling, organize his text any differently than hundreds of other titles in this genre, or say anything unique. He has, in fact, stayed completely within the lines. Perhaps we can blame the publishing industry for being no better than the school districts across the country. Yet this book has more problems than its conformity to the dictates of a mindless reading public who insist on reading uniform text printed from left to right. I also found Schank's incessant use of generalization quite frustating. For example, on page 97, he states that when any child provides a teacher with a wrong answer, he or she feels humiliation and will never speak in class again. I can't believe that every child has the SAME level of sensitivity or that every teacher has the SAME level of insensitivity. Schank also ASSUMES that any child who does answer a teacher's question is doing so without any interest in the question or the answer offered. Yikes! Mr. Schank's ability to empathize with every single child in America is unbelievable. Also, I loved the chapter entitled "Raising a More Analytical Kid" in which Schank makes unfounded statements such as, "We live in a society where feelings increasingly take precedence in decision-making" (132). This statement itself is one of intuition only. How does Schank know that people didn't use the same level of emotion while making decisions in the middle ages, or even the Victorian period? Indeed, much of Schank's support seems to be anecdotal. All this said, there are some valuable ideas within this book. If you can read past the author's resentment of authority and his exaggerated case against the educational system, the book offers some valuable insights into raising children. In particular, Schank's suggestions for increasing a child's verbal and creative skills are worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Good points but sometimes misses the mark
Review: This book has a lot of good points, and practical ideas on how to raise children to make the most of their God-given brain power. Among the good: Allow children down time; expose them to a wide variety of experiences and pay attention to their questions; severely limit TV watching, rather encourage reading and creative play; and nurture one on one relationships. Unfortunately the author throws in too many unwarranted jabbs against people of faith, and often relies more on his own eccentric ideas than actual studies of children. He ridicules religious faith and fails to acknowledge the positive role that an active religious life plays in raising a child. Schenk makes the valid point that time spent with children, especially one-on-one, is of vital importance; while studies show that Christian fathers - specifically both evangelical and Catholic - spend more time with their children than any other group. He says things like "having a drink with dinner and then driving home... is breaking a rule intelligently." And then, "(allow) them to be curious about everything. This means lifting all the traditional restrictions parents place on kids - no drinking, no smoking, no sex..." although "it's possible that they'll get into trouble because of this permissiveness." Yes indeed. They may also be seriously hurt, emotionally or physically, or killed. Studies show that if mothers simply made it known (many do not) that they would prefer for their children to postpone sex, more will do just that. Other suggestions like pulling your kid out of a class taught by a bad teacher (how this will teach gumption I'm not sure) cause me to take this information with a grain of sand, although as above there are some good points made.
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