Rating: 
Summary: Scarier than Stephen King!
Review: Although it drags a little in the middle, this book ought to be mandatory reading for any parent about to send his or her child to public high school. No discipline, no values, no integrity, little education. I work two jobs so that I can send my kids to private school. Reading this made writing the checks a thousand times easier. The lesson of this book: even if you have to live out of your car, avoid public education!
Rating:
Summary: Scarier than Stephen King!
Review: Although it drags a little in the middle, this book ought to be mandatory reading for any parent about to send his or her child to public high school. No discipline, no values, no integrity, little education. I work two jobs so that I can send my kids to private school. Reading this made writing the checks a thousand times easier. The lesson of this book: even if you have to live out of your car, avoid public education!
Rating: 
Summary: Attempting to enter Another Planet
Review: Another Planet attempts to bring us into the doors of a suburban high school and show us what the new realities of high school are. Elinor Burkett goes back to school in an attempt to tackle the tough questions we are asking about schools. From the trials of teachers to the tribulations of students Burkett gives us a firsthand account of the way our society and our politicians have changed the basic tenants of the institution many of us think we know everything about. Burkett shows us that while the halls of the school may be the same, the things that are happening inside of those halls are much different.
Burkett does a nice job of hitting all of the major issues that are burning in today's school systems. Her research into the realities of standards based education, funding shortages, skyrocketing health care insurance, and the difficulties teachers have balancing the many roles they feel they need to fill seems to fit with what people in the trenches are feeling. Her insights into the ever increasing pressures students are facing also seem to hit their mark.
Another Planet falls short, in my opinion, in the way she attempts to put the whole picture together. Individual topics are fairly well defined, but Burkett seems misguided in her view of how those individual pieces fit with each other. One nice aspect of the book is that the analysis is easily put aside and the reader is free to draw their own conclusions.
Burkett's book is a nice snapshot of schools today. The book is becoming dated rather quickly with the strong references to school violence and the Columbine school shootings. It may become useful down the road as a reference to this time period and help future generations ground themselves in what feelings were pervading schools in the early part of the new century. I do think the current uses of the book are limited as they do not give us any real new knowledge or insight to any of the issues that are currently being focused on by society. I was also confused by the strange addition of the afterword by the author which seemed to serve no real purpose to the book.
Despite the shortcomings of the book, I found it a quick and easy read. I was able to draw my own conclusions about the author's experiences during her year at Prior Lake High School, so I do not feel her views got in the way of the true value of this book. If not for the misguided analysis I would have rated the book a three.
Rating:
Summary: Attempting to enter Another Planet
Review: Another Planet attempts to bring us into the doors of a suburban high school and show us what the new realities of high school are. Elinor Burkett goes back to school in an attempt to tackle the tough questions we are asking about schools. From the trials of teachers to the tribulations of students Burkett gives us a firsthand account of the way our society and our politicians have changed the basic tenants of the institution many of us think we know everything about. Burkett shows us that while the halls of the school may be the same, the things that are happening inside of those halls are much different.
Burkett does a nice job of hitting all of the major issues that are burning in today's school systems. Her research into the realities of standards based education, funding shortages, skyrocketing health care insurance, and the difficulties teachers have balancing the many roles they feel they need to fill seems to fit with what people in the trenches are feeling. Her insights into the ever increasing pressures students are facing also seem to hit their mark.
Another Planet falls short, in my opinion, in the way she attempts to put the whole picture together. Individual topics are fairly well defined, but Burkett seems misguided in her view of how those individual pieces fit with each other. One nice aspect of the book is that the analysis is easily put aside and the reader is free to draw their own conclusions.
Burkett's book is a nice snapshot of schools today. The book is becoming dated rather quickly with the strong references to school violence and the Columbine school shootings. It may become useful down the road as a reference to this time period and help future generations ground themselves in what feelings were pervading schools in the early part of the new century. I do think the current uses of the book are limited as they do not give us any real new knowledge or insight to any of the issues that are currently being focused on by society. I was also confused by the strange addition of the afterword by the author which seemed to serve no real purpose to the book.
Despite the shortcomings of the book, I found it a quick and easy read. I was able to draw my own conclusions about the author's experiences during her year at Prior Lake High School, so I do not feel her views got in the way of the true value of this book. If not for the misguided analysis I would have rated the book a three.
Rating:
Summary: Read with caution
Review: As a product of a suburban school, the deja vu factor kept kicking in on every page I read. As an education student planning to be a teacher, the book had me smiling and frowning after every other sentence. Burkett certainly holds no punches and I admit that the truth is not a pleasant pill to swallow. What Burkett does do too much of is placate the irresponsible teenager. A few years ago, I was in the same "social geograhpical" world of Roger, Reilly, and Marissa. Soon, I will be a Carr and a Corey, and I hope to end up a Lachelt. There is no excuse for disrespect, no matter how many things can take the blame for not raising proper youth. My caution to readers, though, is that not all teachers are bad and unproductive as Burkett may make them out to be. Such sentences as "The instant [the students] set foot on school grounds, however, they were catapulted back into childhood" seemed to make the author anti-school and pro-let-the-kids-do-whatever they want. Perhaps that is my bias as an educator coming through, but there are few descriptions of teachers being positive role models, which there are a good many of in American public schools. Griping aside, the book is well-written and entertaining as well. I feel like I know the staff and students of Prior Lake High School and that, in and of itself, brings all of the academic woes and social wrongs more strikingly real and alive.
Rating: 
Summary: An insider's view of Another Planet
Review: As a senior of Prior Lake High School, I sat in on a lot of the interviews conducted by Eli Burkett. I was one of the "loser" crowd, as was my husband, and was mentioned in the book. I think she did a pretty good job of portraying the high school the way it really was, despite the indescrepansies littered throughout. One thing I did not like: she took the students on their word alone and failed to check out the facts...she also mentioned things that did not need to be said about certain students. What really got to me was the way she belittled my struggles. Instead of writing about a teenage pregnancy that was ending in a good way, she belittled it by spending more time writing about the students who had abortions. However, this was her book, and I am not one to tell her how to write it. Let me just say that doing the "responsible" thing and getting married was so so so much harder than she made it out to be. Oh, and Roger isn't the "poor repressed black student" she makes him out to be...he is one of my closest friends, and an angel, but...like I said before, this is her view. On the other hand, she really puts into light such programs as "zero-tolerance" and other school policies and their idiosyncrasies. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who goes to high school, has children in high school, and secondary education teachers.
Rating:
Summary: A real look at a real school
Review: As a suburban educator I can tell you this is 100% accurate. Anyone, parent, teacher, politician who wants to see what is going on in a school from both a student and faculty perspective must read this book. This is the real deal.WARNING TO ALL EDUCATORS about this book: this book is so real and accurate that reading it will make you think you are at work. This book is not an escape read for a teacher, it brings you back to work for another period! You can put names from your own school on all the people in this book. Educators will read this book and say how truthful it is, everyone else should read it and see how scary the educational system has become.
Rating:
Summary: A real look at a real school
Review: As a suburban educator I can tell you this is 100% accurate. Anyone, parent, teacher, politician who wants to see what is going on in a school from both a student and faculty perspective must read this book. This is the real deal. WARNING TO ALL EDUCATORS about this book: this book is so real and accurate that reading it will make you think you are at work. This book is not an escape read for a teacher, it brings you back to work for another period! You can put names from your own school on all the people in this book. Educators will read this book and say how truthful it is, everyone else should read it and see how scary the educational system has become.
Rating:
Summary: A glass half empty
Review: At first, Another Planet seems to be a polemic against the current state of American suburban high schools. Yet despite giving too much credence to student whiners and rebels most of what Elinor Burkett has written is painfully true. Though the book lacks the voice of so many students who are quietly doing well, one can't ignore the signs that our schools have lost their way. High school education flounders as an entrenched bureaucracy fights an endless battle against students whose interests are more for personal freedom than learning. Ms. Burkett shows us on all levels how our "me first" society has permeated to the core of our schools. As a teacher in a nearby suburban high school, I can oly attest to the veracity of her book and hope its revelations lead to positive debate.
Rating:
Summary: If only the public knew
Review: Elinor Burkett's eye for subtle detail will open yours to the state of education in the American suburban landscape. One could not imagine a more sensitive 'fly on the wall' to the sociology of American education. As a retired educator of thirty years [in an adjoining school district from which the saga transpires], I can attest to the painful features of an institution which has far more concerns than education on its plate. Students, administrators, teachers, cooks, and everyone else caught up in the impersonal nature of the American high school are given free rein in their reactions to, and coping with, the 'beast among us.' You may shake your head in reaction to Ms. Burkett's reporting, and you may oftentimes laugh out loud at the antics portrayed, but I can guarantee that you will be amazed at what you didn't know about our most important social institution for our nation's future. With great humor and understanding, the author has done a service for anyone interested in that future.
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