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Summary: Attention Educators and Parents
Review: This is a must read for any parent with a child who has trouble in school. To the educators who read it, I hope that they can understand that not every child in your class can keep up with you all the time. That some students go into overload, we as adults at times feel overloaded and overwhelmed by our chosen careers, the one strength we have, yet we expect our children to go to school, be an honor student, an athlete, choir member, socially acceptable, etc.
Dr. Levine's insight into the brain has made me aware of some of my shortcomings as an adult, things that I struggled with in school and still continue to have difficulty with. How I at times felt that my child was being lazy and not trying their best, when perhaps it was just a concept they couldn't understand.
It is very informative for parents in understanding that your child is not alone.
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Summary: What A Great Book!
Review: "A Mind At A Time" by Mel Levine did not disappoint me. What a great read! I recommend it to everyone. And like one of the other reviewers, I also recommend going on to read Norman Thomas Remick's book "West Point: Character, Leadership, Education ... Thomas Jefferson".
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Summary: It's Revolutionary!
Review: An amazingly well-written book which should inspire hope and encouragement - and give practical advice - to families with children who are struggling in school!
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Summary: A well written disappointment
Review: This book is so promising from the cover. It is filled with anecdotal information, which makes the reading more enjoyable. And the information is solid, well written and detailed. I was disappointed however, in the lack of information on how to tell which of these areas are problem areas, and what to do about it. Often, the author relates that after testing the evaluation team found... and then does not explain how a parent at home might go about doing this type of "evaluation". Then he talks about creating a plan to focus on the strengths of the child to overcome the weak points. Great plan, but again gives very little help in how a parent might go about doing it. Mostly this book is not about giving out usable information, but really about promoting his "Schools Attuned" program and one student success center in Raleigh, NC! This book describes in detail and with examples all the areas a child might have difficulty, but will give you little help in figuring out which are problem areas for your child, and what (if you manage to figure out the problem) to do about it. Wonderful information, what to do with it?
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Summary: A Mind At A Time, by Mel Levine
Review: This book was up-to-date when written, but schools have done much on their own, beyond mandates, in the past almost 2 decades to improve classrooms for all students. Having worked in schools the past 35+ years, I was there when teachers became aware of Levine and other writer's accurate discriptions of real problems. They sought and applied innovative methods to improve things for students with physical, emotional, and learning deficits. Any parent can speak with their child's teacher, or become a volunteer helper to see dramatic changes in place for the children in elementary through middle schools. I cannot speak to high schools, but assume this is true there, since it also is evident in community and state college campuses. Times have changed our schools! This author gives a good picture of what was. It provides a good background for readers to see how new, complex, and difficult problems surfaced,and were tenaciously worked on within a rapidly growing population, which dramatically changed in composition in both culture + birth language. The San Jose, CA, school district alone there were over 100 languages spoken in the mid 1980's. All caring parents owe it to their child(ren) to be informed~to see for themselves that classrooms are no longer how they remember them...and how this author portrays them.
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Summary: A Mind At A Time: Modern Version, Original
Review: I recently read about the philosophy of education that M.D. Levine describes in his book, "A Mind At A Time", when I was reading the book by Norman Thomas Remick called "West Point: ... Education ... Readings and Writings of Thomas Jefferson". Mr. Levine gives us an excellent MODERN VERSION of Thomas Jefferson's ORIGINAL writings and philosophies of education. I'm not sure whether Mr. Levine's goals are the same as Jefferson's were, or mine are, or yours are. But, the ideas are, basically, the same. Jefferson never got most of what he wanted. Perhaps Mr. Levine will. In any event, if you're interested in this, I recommend your reading both the MODERN VERSION and the ORIGINAL.
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Summary: Rambling; lacking citations; some good ideas nevertheless
Review: Let me be clear that I'm reviewing the book, not the doctor. I ordered this book because I'd heard Dr. Levine speak on television. He's affable and convincing. He makes a powerful case for the need to respect different learning styles and incorporate every adult involved in a child's education in developing a tailor-made plan. The problem is that the case he makes is less powerful here in print, where he never drops a citation or gives credit or offers anything but anecdote to bolster his claims. That could be fine, but it wasn't the scholarly discourse I was hoping for. And he sometimes runs long in the speaking. Dr. Levine may be a whizbang at communicating with kids and extremely sensitive to the needs of an individual, but it seems he's a little less astute at judging the attention of a remote audience--or this one, anyway. I found it brutally hard to finish this book. Now that I have, I plan to use it the way I believe that it should have been written: piecemeal, as I find I have need. This is a manual, not a story, and I believe it would have benefited from a more streamlined presentation.
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Summary: Brilliantly Simple
Review: Dr. Levine teaches that it is more helpful to understand HOW a child behaves and not WHY a child behaves in the way he does. What a brililantly simple idea - a paradigm shift. If you think in this way, then you can go to work immediately on finding the solutions that fit your child. After reading "A Mind at a Time", I saw my son's behavior in terms of HOW and was able to start to address it. (For years my wife and I had been discouraged and tried absolutely everything with little effect.)
Recently I came upon "Behavior Coaching" by Dr. Scott Hall who seems to be of the same school of thought with Dr. Levine. "Behavior Coaching" takes the theory of "A Mind at a Time" and directly employs it in a step-by-step action plan for improving your child's behavior. Great companions, "A Mind at a Time" and "Behavior Coaching", get them both to help you hone your parenting skills.
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Summary: I love this book!
Review: I am a school psychologist intern. I bought this book to help me better understand the cognitive influences of learning problems. This book is great! It's easy to read and understand and not dry like many of the text books I've read. I would recommend this book to parents, school psychologists and teachers alike. This is one of the most useful books I've bought, by far.
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Summary: I Loved this book!
Review: I absolutely loved this book. I was impressed with his observation that there is no such thing as a perfect mind. He points out that everyone has trouble with SOME aspect of learning and uses himself as an example at times. He discusses the importance of discovering and nurturing strengths in the management and improvement of specific weaknesses. I have never seen such a positive presentation of learning differences. I recommend this book for ALL educators of school children- parents, teachers, therapists, etc. Instead of dreading the beginning of the school year, I was actually looking forward to it.
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