Book Review: Proust and the Squib (Marryanne Wolf, Tufts U, Boston)

[Dr J Turner]

A neuroscientist´s examination of how the brain is affected by the activity of reading. Traces developments from Socrates and issues such as dyslexia. Puts forward fear that I ¨many of our children are in danger of becoming just what Socrates warned us against – a society of decoders of information, whose false sense of knowing distracts them from a deeper development of their intellectual potential. It does not need to be so, if we teach them well, a charge that is equally applicable to our children with dyslexia.¨(p226)
Wolf feels that in the ¨21stC we are poised to change significantly and rapidly in ways that most of us can barely predict or fully comprehend."(p220). I believe we need to develop new balances that value deep reading, synthesis, analysis and creative expression that incorporates traditional texts as well as multimedia information. The role of teachers is thus ever more important if school is to help prepare our young for this new future.

[Julie Lindsay]

Thanks John...another book for my summer reading list! My philosophy is in line with your last 2 sentences....but gee this is hard work! After the past 18+ months here at Qatar Academy I feel like I need a year off just to sit and read and absorb and reflect and synthesis and give myself time to move all of this to the next level in my own practice and therefore be better at supporting others around me who are struggling to 'get it'.