andreweverett360 Book Review, Nonprofit

The Knowledge Gap


The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System — and How to Fix It
by Natalie Wexler

I have been seeing a steady flow of articles about the stunted literacy among high school graduates and college students.* Wexler’s excellent reportage indirectly points to a root cause: flawed reading pedagogy in elementary school. In a nutshell, the book explains the dire consequences of the shift from phonics-based reading instruction to “whole language” (aka “balanced literacy”) methods which focus on reading “skills” independent of content.

Aside from this prevailing method being unsupported by cognitive science—and never mind that the whole point of reading is to comprehend meaning—it creates a compounding problem in other subjects like science, history, and civics because students acquire knowledge and understanding by building on existing knowledge. So, if the seeds aren’t planted in elementary school, high school teachers have no foundation to build upon.

Chapter 11 makes me wonder if the mind-boggling surge in learning disability diagnoses* may be explained, in part, by the trend toward ineffective reading instruction, that is to say reading inabilities rather than cognitive disabilities.

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andreweverett360 Art, Book Review

The Art of Responsive Drawing


The Art of Responsive Drawing
by Nathan Goldstein (1927-2013)

I was prompted to read this book after a discussion with an art professor about what makes a work of art compelling. I commented that spontaneous gesture drawings can capture an intangible quality—energy, attitude, spirit—that is often lost in more technically resolved drawings and paintings. How does an artist preserve the initial spark of interest in a more complete work?

Nathan Goldstein writes about the expressive character of a drawing—that is to say, its psychological appeal—grounded by the fundamentals of representational drawing: gesture, shape, line, value, perspective and foreshortening, volume, color, and composition.

“The best drawings always disclose a blend of facts and feelings, and to displace intuition and empathy with a dry intellectual examination of a subject’s structural condition upsets the necessary and delicate balance between discipline and indulgence that gives master drawings their individual character and spirit.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Psychology & Neuroscience

Life’s Journeys According to Mister Rogers


Life’s Journeys According to Mister Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way
by Fred Rogers (1928-2003)

And now a Thanksgiving palette cleanser.

Fred Rogers was the creator and host of the children’s television show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood from 1968 to 2001. This short book is a posthumously published collection of his writing for adults.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Psychology & Neuroscience

Decisionscape: How Thinking Like an Artist Can Improve Our Decision-Making


Decisionscape: How Thinking Like an Artist Can Improve Our Decision-Making
by Elspeth Kirkman

“Knowingly or not, we often draw on the logic of pictorial space as a metaphor for our decisions. We use phrases like getting things in perspective or blowing them out of proportion… And we implore one another to zoom out or see the big picture.”

Elspeth Kirkman is a behavioral scientist who uses the analogy of art making to explain the psychology of decision making. “I call this mental representation the decisionscape… The central idea of this book is that we could improve our decisions, whether personal or professional, by constructing and analyzing it deliberately, just as an artist approaches the canvas.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Finance

The Psychology of Money


The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness
by Morgan Housel

Financial success is a soft skill, writes Morgan Housel, “where how you behave is more important than what you know.” This is a book about developing the mindset of a long-term investor, with a realistic attitude towards risk and reward. The book is conspicuously free of financial jargon and math. Here are some key points.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Assemblage: The Art and Science of Brand Transformation


Assemblage: The Art and Science of Brand Transformation
by Emmanuel Probst 

“Assemblage is a French word that refers to the art and science of blending different eaux-de-vies (brandies) before bottling cognac. It is the craft of the maître de chai (also known as the master blender or cellar master) to select brandies from dozens of samples and craft a unique cognac… Assemblage is also a metaphor for building successful brands.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Psychology & Neuroscience

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals


Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
by Oliver Burkeman

We live in an era where appliances and software supposedly make our lives easier. “Yet, paradoxically, you only feel busier, more anxious… And becoming ‘more productive’ just seems to cause the belt to speed up.”

We all have a finite amount of time in our lives—in the neighborhood of 4,000 weeks, assuming an 80-year lifespan and rounding to 50 weeks per year. “Our limited time… what Heidegger calls our ‘finitude’… isn’t just one among various things we have to cope with; rather, it’s the thing that defines us, as humans.”

“The world is bursting with wonder, and yet it’s the rare productivity guru who seems to have considered the possibility that the ultimate point of all our frenetic doing might be to experience more of that wonder.”

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