Ben Chavis has now taken his education model public, after turning around AIPCS, turning it around with family, good books, good teachers, a back-to-basics focus, structure, discipline, high expectations, a taste of free market capitalism, accountability and his unique disdain for educational orthodoxy: “Multicultural specialists, ultraliberal zealots, and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply [for teaching jobs].” But success was not foreordained for his school. In fact, it was just one vote away—within days of Dr. Chavis taking over as principal—from being ordered closed by the school board. I invite you to follow his rescue and recovery, as he replaces a broken faculty, and fixes a dysfunctional curriculum, and imposes structure and discipline on a school without either. On his journey, Dr. Chavis will take away student computers and refuse to offer the federal school lunch program. He will take mirrors out of the student restrooms and require students and parents sign contracts. He will emphasize perfect attendance for all students, paying students at year end if they have zero unexcused absences, and his attendance rates will climb each year from around 65% to about 98%. He will require teachers focus on teaching language arts (reading, writing, grammar) and math each class day, allocating 90 minutes to each subject. He will adopt an educational model that focuses on the student, requiring approved texts, retaining only quality teachers, administering a program of accountability with an emphasis on rewards for achievement and punishment for misconduct.

And during that time, gradually building on success, his middle school’s performance results will slowly climb from subterranean levels to the top of the performance charts, reaching the magic 800, the benchmark of excellence on the California Academic Performance Index, subsequently with breakneck speed the scores climb above 900, distinguishing the school as one of the top 10 in the state, garnering national recognition for his Oakland school. And along the way he sets Olympian goals for his students. Eventually, he expands his model, adding an AIPCS high school and a second middle school in Oakland: both schools continuing to excel.

It is a redemptive journey and there are now AIM-Ed (AIM to Educate) models of Dr. Chavis’ program being replicated in CA and elsewhere in North America. Besides the story about turning around a troubled, dysfunctional school, this book is also an intriguing story about the life of Ben Chavis, a North Carolina Indian, a story about how he came to challenge just about every politically correct, educationally popular elixir in education today. Mr. Chavis learned from his own life lessons what works: focus on teachers in the classroom—eliminate the bureaucracy and ancillary staff positions; focus on teacher-student relationships—require that a teacher be assigned to the same middle school class for all three years and emphasize core subjects; and focus on discipline—breaking down students that are discipline problems and building them up again. And Dr. Chavis blends all of these ingredients into an educational philosophy that works—works with exceptional results, at both the middle school and high school level.

And when you read this book, you will cry the next time you read about the chaotic, inner-city schools with their 50% flunk-out rates, with students graduating who cannot read, and with the huge waste of so much talent. And when you think about what these youngsters from Indian, Asian, and Hispanic poor families in Oakland accomplished, you might just wonder if the education lobby—consisting of too many left wing fantasy ideologists—is so committed to its religious orthodoxy that it would prefer the current school model over academic justice for students? Would they really prefer a model that just keeps plodding along with more failure over a school system that is successful beyond their dreams? In fact, a model that is so successful that every child in the first high school graduating class takes AP calculus and AP literature, 100% of the 2008 - 2009 seniors are accepted to four-year colleges and universities, and every middle school gets test results placing the class in the top 10 in the Academic Performance Index in the State of CA. And if they would prefer dogma over academic justice, then finally we will know that for some: the schools exist for everyone but the students.

What will happen to Catholic hospitals if the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), a bill to be sponsored by Senator Boxer and Congressman Nadler, passes? Many Catholics are concerned it would result in the destruction of conscience protections for medical personnel, shifting the force of government further in favor of abortion, requiring Catholic hospitals to close or accept a procedure they oppose? Following the civil rights model of civil disobedience some Catholic Bishops want to refuse to comply, while other Bishops talk about closing Catholic Hospitals. Catholic Hospitals in America employ 600,000, comprise 13 percent of the total 5,000 hospitals, and care for 1 in 6.

Could civil disobedience work? Or, would Courts find a civil remedy for the test case “victims” sent to Catholic hospitals across America by groups like NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood? Surely, these groups would be sending out “test cases,”—persons seeking abortions at Catholic hospitals, individuals who if refused the procedure would file law suits with the financial support of a group like the ACLU to finance their agenda? And if it meant exposing medical personnel to litigation, would health care workers be willing to work for a Catholic hospital engaged in civil disobedience? And if they were willing to work for a Catholic hospital engaged in civil disobedience, would health care professionals be able to get malpractice insurance? Can a Catholic Church committed to life from conception realistically remain open and participate in what it regards as an evil and pernicious operation?

Would the first African-American President really participate in legislation destroying the long honored right of conscience—a cherished tradition and principle of individual rights in the West and in the United States, a right resulting in the abolition of slavery and the benefits to minorities from the Civil Rights movement? Perhaps he would; after all, isn’t he the first Presidential candidate to argue that an infant surviving a botched partial-birth abortion procedure is “pre-viable;” and then argue that such an infant is not protected as a “person” under the Constitution. During the campaign, he even responded to a question from Rick Warren during a debate about when life begins, by answering: when life begins is: “above my pay grade.” President Obama’s argument that a living child was not a person entitled to life always struck me as rather curious and inexplicable in light of the universal condemnation throughout America today of the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision, a decision holding a slave was only three fifths of a person.

Perhaps you ask, why would President Obama sign such legislation—an act shuttering up to 13 percent of all hospitals in America, an act resulting in unemployment or relocation for up to 600,000 employees, an act disrupting and distressing one in six Americans? Why would he do this in light of the impacts upon religious faith, and hospital care, and the economy, and the right of conscience; after all, didn’t he promise to bring a new tone to American politics, to rise above the petty politics of the past, to bring Americans together, not drive them further apart?

            
Consider, however, as a Presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised to sign FOCA, a promise he made to pro-abortion groups that supported his election. Consider also, quickly after his inauguration, President Obama proudly signed an Executive Order authorizing the use of American taxpayer dollars, to fund international organizations providing abortions, an expenditure of money opposed, in a recent poll, by 62 percent of Americans.  

            
Perhaps, President Obama would say: it all depends on what you mean by “bringing together.”

 Aura is a page-turner that carries you further into the events in Felipe’s life when he responds to an add that struck him as too good to be true—as if it were written with his name inserted in the add. His employer Consuelo briefs him on his work, but it is Aura, her young, beautiful, spellbinding niece that merges into his very essence.

Yes, comparisons to Gothic literature are helpful, and the mention of Poe rings true, but, for me, I found another comparison more helpful. For those familiar with “The Twilight Zone,” this story takes me back to some of those episodes. It also reminds me of a favorite story about another young man; a young man taken in by a young, beautiful woman; a story also requiring a suspension of belief, a journey into another dimension, a tale of intrigue, mystery, and an unpredictable ending; a story included in: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories They Wouldn’t Let Me Do on TV.

Dalrymple’s collected essays display an ability to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize the evidence presented in support of his thesis in a clear and compelling manner. He communicates his wisdom, about the past, present, and future, in a straight forward highly readable style.

Displaying a high-level of intellectual curiosity as demonstrated by the extensive range of books he folds into his analysis, and a diverse array of life experiences marshaled in support of his insights, these timely essays raise issues in the news today. They are especially relevant for Americans wondering what “change” we might see should we become more like England with a stronger central government, a government reaching into all aspects of our lives while continually expanding the size of the groups totally reliant on it.

These essays support the overarching theme announced in the subtitle—The Politics and Culture of Decline. Dr. Dalrymple, a clear-eyed observer of the British scene, persuasively argues in his preface:

These essays cover the gambit of cultural and political topics. Part I, “Artists and Ideologues” includes essays discussing the importance of language (“The Gift of Language”); character (“What Makes Dr. Johnson Great?); marriage (Ibsen and His Discontents); and religion (What the New Atheists Don’t See). Part II, “Politics and Culture” covers such issues as: individual responsibility(Real Crime, Fake Justice); the qualities of the British character weakened, corroded, even destroyed, by the corrosive effect of a legislative agenda based on collectivism and political correctness (The Roads to Serfdom, How Not to Do It, and In the Asylum); concluding with the dehumanizing impact upon all drawn into the government’s web of dependency, lies, and capitulation (It’s This Bad and A Murderess’s Tale).

A personal favorite was his analysis of Tony Blair’s performance as Prime Minister in “Delusions of Dishonesty,” an essay that drew a less than flattering profile of Blair’s character, and his leadership style—his “Third Way,” explaining why Tony Blair was “the most unpopular Prime Minister of recent history” when he left office.

This is an essay that draws an unflattering picture of his character—a “tendency to indulge in self-obsession without self-examination;” a political willingness to act contrary to campaign promises; an unwillingness to candidly respond to challenges about actions in conflict with previous statements. “What he said on one day had no necessary connection with what he said on the following day: and if someone pointed out the contradiction, he would use his favorite phrase, ‘It’s time to move on.’”

Dr. Dalrymple is also a contributor to City Journal; and at City Journal’s on-line site there is an archive of over 200 hundred of his essays, including “Delusions of Dishonesty.” I recommend you read this essay if you are interested in the topic and learning more about Dalrymple’s work. This is a book well-worth owning; you will want to mark key passages for future use in discussions with friends.

Other Book Reviews By Buster:

Fifty Days of Solitude: Making Time to Enjoy a Gift of Time

Taking Retirement: A Packed Deck of Lessons

Gaining Perspective about the War against Radical Islamism – Civilization And Its Enemies, by Lee Harris

Patton and The Soul of Battle—The Soul of Battle by Victor Davis Hanson

A thoughtful book, I recommend Fifty Days of Solitude. Alone at home during a period of self-imposed seclusion, Doris Grumbach offers a helpful meditation on the meaning of solitude, telling of her time weighing and considering a range of questions, her search for answers, and a report of lessons learned. Her solitude affords her time to delve into remembered ideas from art and a lifetime of reading. Quoting artists and authors, she conducts her own Socratic dialogues, following Bacon’s admonition for book readers that “some few are to be chewed and digested.”

Grumbach also explores her thoughts about friends and friendships; thoughts about loneliness versus solitude; about the crowding out of “white spaces” where much meaning is often missed; about the need for learning “to look hard at what she did not notice before and even harder at what is not there, at what Paul Valery called ‘the presence of absence.’”

There is an interesting insight about the role of solitude in life and her failure to appreciate it as a gift when young, recalling two brief periods when she lived alone. The author recognizes that opportunities for reflection are more difficult for her in the noisy city. She learns that solitude nourishes her energy and promotes creativity; her writing becomes more satisfying and more productive.

The day’s mail disrupts her routine. It invades her seclusion bringing reports of unwelcomed events in friend’s lives—illness, death, disgrace. These letters, with news clippings, from friends, take her away from her writing. She receives a particularly disquieting report about a much-admired friend and respected teacher who has been indicted. His disturbing fall leads her to think about a characteristic of American society: “too often achievement and recognition come early and too fast, leaving a long life of disappointment and decline.’”

Finally, as her self-imposed seclusion ends, she reaches some final thoughts about solitude:

Taking Retirement: A Packed Deck of Lessons -

Gaining Perspective about the War against Radical Islamism – Civilization And Its Enemies,