Description

---

“If you read only one book on educating children, this should be the book.… With a warm, informative voice, Bauer gives you the knowledge that will help you flex the educational model to meet the needs of your child.” —San Francisco Book Review

Our K–12 school system isn’t a good fit for all—or even most—students. It prioritizes a single way of understanding the world over all others, pushes children into a rigid set of grades with little regard for individual maturity, and slaps “disability” labels on differences in learning style. Caught in this system, far too many young learners end up discouraged.

This informed, compassionate, and practical guidebook will show you how to take control of your child’s K–12 experience and negotiate the school system in a way that nurtures your child’s mind, emotions, and spirit.

• Understand why we have twelve grades, and why we match them to ages.


• Evaluate your child’s maturity, and determine how to use that knowledge to your advantage.


• Find out what subject areas we study in school, why they exist—and how to tinker with them.


• Discover what learning disabilities and intellectual giftedness are, how they can overlap, how to recognize them, and how those labels can help (or hinder) you.


• Work effectively with your child’s teachers, tutors, and coaches.


• Learn to teach important subjects yourself.


• Challenge accepted ideas about homework and standardized testing.


• Help your child develop a vision for the future.


• Reclaim your families’ priorities (including time for eating together, playing, imagining, traveling, and, yes, sleeping!).


• Plan for college—or apprenticeships.


• Consider out-of-the-box alternatives.

About the Author

---

Susan Wise Bauer is an educator and academic who has worked with parents and students for more than twenty years. She taught at the College of William and Mary in Virginia for fifteen years. Her previous best-selling titles for Norton include The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had, Rethinking School, The Story of Western Science: From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory, and the History of the World series

Praise For…

---

Should be on the nightstand of every parent, every teacher, and anyone invested in the education of our children.… Bauer’s down-to-earth approach and talent for describing complex ideas in simple, easy-to-understand terms makes for a comforting and accessible read.… This book offers hope to many who are desperately searching for it and empowers parents to finally take charge of their children’s education.
— Epoch Times

A welcome operator’s manual for parents of school-age children, inside or outside the K–12 paradigm.
— Kirkus Reviews

Bauer makes a passionate case for why the K–12 system desperately needs to be rethought.… Comforting and instructive.
— Publishers Weekly

A detailed look at how modern schooling can be a mismatch for students’ needs.… Very straightforward and informative.
— Library Journal