Rating: 
Summary: Practical study techniques based on liberal education.
Review: This is the first book I've read which has the practical advise on thinking skills which are based on principles of liberal education. It teaches you how to think, and not simply how to study. The techniques taught, therefore, apply to ones profession, to ones life, and not just to exams. The few details I do not like about the book are the references to the school as being the "wrong" place of learning. Although the educational system really needs a lot of improvements, his generalizations are, I think, quite unfair.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful tool for "un-schooling" as well
Review: Though WHAT SMART STUDENTS KNOW is intended as an aid for people attending school, I would also highly recommend it for those who, like me, are not currently enrolled but are interested in what is sometimes referred to as "un-schooling," i.e., clearing one's mind of the backward concepts upon which schooling is founded. Author Adam Robinson argues that one of the most backward concepts taught in school is that if you do not enjoy attending, fail to get good grades, and do not learn in the way lesson plans are structured, then there is something wrong with you. "More likely," he corrects, "there is something wrong with school." He does not mince words. The epilogue includes an open letter to teachers, parents, students, school administrators, and politicians, that reveals Robinson's real reason for writing this book: he hates what school does to students. Robinson is "angry at how school produces submissive students with battered egos." This is exactly what happened to me. I never liked school ("hate" would be a better word for how I felt). I thought this meant that I was stupid (this self-appraisal was aided by the fact that my first grade teacher claimed I had learning disabilities; Robinson sheds light on this outrageous phenomenon, explaining that teachers often use this label as punishment for rebellious, independently-minded students). I eventually developed a phobia of reading and felt guilty about the fact that I enjoy learning on my own, in my own time (going public on Amazon.com with what I have learned has been a great source of personal growth for me). Thanks to WHAT SMART STUDENTS KNOW, I realize that I was never stupid and there was never anything shameful about the fact that I learn better on my own. In fact, Robinson says that we are all our own best teachers, that no one teaches us better than we teach ourselves. Ironically, Robinson has taught me that I in fact possess the attitude necessary for success in school, an attitude built upon the conviction that learning is not important only when it is being graded. Learning happens all the time, in all aspects of life, not just in schools. I really can't praise this book enough. Adam Robinson has helped liberate my soul. I know that sounds a bit verbose, but I believe this is only because we underestimate the extent to which our school experience shapes our self-conception. As John Taylor Gatto, an associate of Robinson and whose praise appears on this book's jacket (Gatto was voted "Teacher of the Year" several years running in New York City and state), has explained, schools are largely prison-like institutions where we are often abused. We carry this abuse, the damage done to our self-esteem, with us throughout our lives (it wasn't until reading Gatto that I realized how ridiculous it is that economic success is often closely linked to performance in school; for elaboration on this, I recommend Gatto's THE UNDERGROUND HISTORY OF AMERICAN EDUCATION). John Taylor Gatto says that in reality it only takes about 100 hours to learn how to read, write, and do basic math. The trick, he says, is to wait until the student is interested in learning the particular subject, and then move quickly. Why, if the basics can be learned rather easily, does basic schooling take 12 years? Because, according to Gatto, the real goal of compulsory education is to teach students to conform, to become pegs in the corporate system of the nation - they feel they need 12 years to achieve this objective. The aim of totalitarian education, Gatto claims, is not to teach conviction, but destroy the capacity to form any. I had thought there was something wrong with me for resisting this lesson. WHAT SMART STUDENTS KNOW has taught me that I had it right from the start: there is nothing wrong with me; there is something wrong with school! Andrew Parodi
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