These 10 books are intended for the general adult audience, but they are filled with information valuable to parents on topics such as success, motivation, talent, intelligence, and current education policy. No how-to parenting or child development books are on this list. If you only have time to read one book, we think the #1 recommended book delivers the quickest and best learning value for your effort. If you have time to read two, the top two books provide the most useful information for your time. If you can read all 10 books, the knowledge you gain about learning and education will make your cortical mass bulge!
| 1 | Outliers: The Story of Success |
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Malcolm Gladwell
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Along the path to success, parents are the primary guides for children, but just how informed are they about success itself? In Outliers, best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell tells stories about people and groups with exceptional achievements, like Asian math students, the Beatles and Bill Gates. In telling these stories, he weaves in strands from current research and leads us to unexpected conclusions about how their success happened. More like lay science than a parenting book, Outliers describes research on parenting styles that is worth knowing. It introduces PCM Top 10 topics such as 10,000 hours, achievement gap, time for learning and charter schools. Entertaining and thought provoking, Outliers will impact how you think about success.
| 2 | Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us |
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Daniel H. Pink
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What are the most effective ways to motivate children to do well in school, to strive and to persevere? In Drive, popular business writer Daniel Pink digests decades of research on motivation and exposes the chasm between what science knows and how the world actually operates. The conventional “carrots-and-sticks” external rewards of the past, he says, doesn’t suit today's work challenges. A new kind of motivation, based on autonomy, mastery, and purpose, must be utilized to achieve high performance and satisfaction. Drive is essential reading for business managers, the career-minded, and parents. In a section speaking to parents and educators, the author offers 9 ideas to nurture kids' intrinsic motivation. Drive will update your motivation toolkit.
| 3 | Whatever It Takes |
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Paul Tough
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Can poverty be alleviated with the right educational system? What would it take? This inspirational book tells the story of Harlem Children’s Zone, America's boldest testing ground for confronting poverty, and Geoffrey Canada, its influential and charismatic CEO. Whatever It Takes clarifies the clashing ideas and important research that invigorate the American debate over poverty and education. PCM Top 10 topics such as charter schools, the achievement gap, accountability, language dancing, and informal learning are discussed throughout the story. A simply written yet masterful work by esteemed journalist, Paul Tough, Whatever It Takes introduces you to the essential education reforms of our times, and leaves you with a practical optimism.
| 4 | The Genius in All of Us |
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David Shenk
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What do you know about genetics, intelligence, and talent? Whatever it is, forget it, says David Shenk, best selling author of The Genius in All of Us. Our common beliefs about “innate” abilities are detrimentally outdated and obscure our potential. Current research in genetics, cognitive science, and biology tells a new story--we play a more dynamic role in developing our ability than we have understood. The nature vs. nurture argument, Shenk states, is finished, because “Talent is not a thing; it’s a process.” How do these optimistic findings affect parenting? He discusses this specifically in Chapter 8, making The Genius in All of Us essential reading for today’s parents.
| 5 | The Knowledge Deficit |
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E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
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E.D. Hirsch, Jr., best-selling author of the Cultural Literacy series and PCM Top 10 Influencer, makes the controversial case that America needs a national curriculum, and backs it with sound research. In The Knowledge Deficit, Hirsh argues that “taken-for-granted knowledge” is indispensible to becoming skilled at reading, and teaching this core knowledge nationwide will close America’s achievement gap. After this book, parents will understand completely why reading to their children is crucial. PCM Top 10 topics such as background knowledge, language dancing, global achievement gap, accountability, and national standards get an eloquent explanation. An honored contribution to the educational debate, The Knowledge Deficit gives parents insight that helps both in and out of school.
| 6 | Mindset: The New Psychology of Success |
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Carol Dweck
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Why do some people cope better than others when facing the inevitable set backs in life? Read this tale of two mindsets—the fixed mindset vs. the growth mindset--to learn the science of how two beliefs systems profoundly impact learning, success, and resilience in the face of failure. Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, through 30-years of research studying motivation and achievement, testing thousands of students from pre-school through college, made a groundbreaking discovery. Since what she uncovered contradicts deeply held beliefs about praise and confidence, this is one of the most important books for parents to read. Mindset will change how you encourage your children and holds insights that could change your life.
| 7 | The Death and Life of the Great American School System |
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Diane Ravitch
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Though just published in March 2010, The Death and Life of the Great American School System is already considered a landmark book in education. Diane Ravitch, while serving as Assistant Secretary of Education under President Bush, Sr., helped to shape and make the arguments that paved the way for America’s current era of educational reforms. But after decades advocating these reforms, her perspective underwent a “wrenching transformation.” The statistics are in, says Ravitch. Testing and choice are not silver bullets. Worse, the unintended consequence is that they actually undermine public education. A PCM Top Ten Influencer, Ravitch is now the leading spokesperson making the case against privatization of schools, high-stakes testing, and punitive accountability.
| 8 | Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Education Will Change the Way the World Learns |
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Clayton Christensen
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In the business world, Clayton Christensen is famous for his theory of “disruptive innovation.” In Disrupting Class he applies his theory to the American public education system and predicts how and when disruption will come. This significant work earned Christensen a place among PCM’s Top Ten Influencers for providing believable answers to the question, “How do we fix American education to meet the needs of the 21st century?” For the business-minded parent, this book does double duty. First, it introduces the phenomenon of disruption innovation, which you will then see everywhere. Then, it describes how technology will make new learning opportunities possible in ways unimagined just 5-10 years ago. In the index, under parenting, are 39 references, so he's speaking to parents.
| 9 | Why Don’t Students Like School? |
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Daniel Willingham
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How does current research in the science of learning apply to education? Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham reviewed what was learned in the laboratory over the last 25 years and distilled 9 principles that can be applied to teaching. The book is intended to help teachers improve their skills, but parents, who are children’s first teachers, can benefit from Willingham’s explanations of how the brain learns and how best to support the process. He introduces PCM Top 10 topics such as background knowledge, incremental intelligence, 10,000 hours, chunking, and flow within the context of classroom action. Filled with surprises and puzzles, Why Don’t Student’s Like School? is as amusing as it is instructive.
| 10 | The Flat World of Education |
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Linda Darling-Hammond
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Clearly America is losing jobs to other nations in this “flat world,” but is it that clear we are losing ground in education too? Can’t scores on international tests be presented to make a case for either side of that debate? Linda Darling-Hammond, one of America’s most distinguished education scholars, addresses these questions in The Flat World of Education. With decades of research cogently summarized, she lays bare the disturbing facts of persistent inequality in American education, describes competing nations’ investment in their education systems, and conveys the consequences for our future. Fact upon fact upon fact build until the reader understands the urgency without having read one word of hype. This book is a magnum opus.
