Leaving America

Many people are thinking about it; this book shows how it's done.

Today more than ever, large numbers of Americans are leaving the United States. It is estimated that by the end of the decade, some 10 million of the brightest and most talented Americans, representing an estimated $136 billion in wages, will be living and working overseas. This emigration trend contradicts the internalized myth of America as the land of affluence, opportunity, and freedom. What is behind this trend? Wennersten argues that many people these days, from college students to retirees, are uncertain or ambivalent about what it means to be an American. For example, many are uncomfortable with that they believe America has come to represent to the rest of the world. At the same time, globalization and advances in technology have enabled the growth of a telecommuting work force whose members can live in one country and work in another, and this trend, among other factors, has encouraged a new generation of people to respond to the pull of global citizenship. Leaving America is an important reexamination of one of the most central stories in the history of American culture—the story of the immigrant coming to the Promised Land. While millions still come to America and millions more still wish to do so, there is an important counterflow of emigration from America to distant parts of the planet. This book focuses on modern American expatriates as a significant and heretofore largely ignored counterpoint phenomenon every bit as central to understanding modern America as is the image of a nation of immigrants. The greatest irony in America today may well be that while argument and discord prevail in the edifice of American democracy about diversity, economic justice, equality, and the Iraq War, many of the most thoughtful citizens have already left the building.

This author not only identifies the major shortcomings of the American Public Elementary School, but makes thirty-three specific recommendations as to how to improve them. He does this because he fears America is falling behind other nations, particularly the Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, and China. He decries the short teaching day and teaching year of the United States in comparison with those nations that are leaving us behind such as South Korea. He pulls no punches in taking on the politicians. In the process parents are not spared as they have exempted their children from walking to neighborhood schools and losing the exercise children experienced in walking by driving them. "Our drop out rate of one third is a disgrace when other nations graduate over 93% from high school," says Hedges. After describing Korean education and making recommendations in the first three chapters, the author then sets forth how modern elementary schools should be and can be organized and operated in contrast with the way so many of them are organized and operated today. This development would help them in contrast with Korean Schools which are more lockstep. He points out that one reason for so many home study children is that parents are not pleased with what the elementary public schools are providing. They want an education tailor made for their children and they set about doing it when the public schools come up short. Too many of our schools proceed in lock step, tracking children into dumb, average, above average, and bright groups when with modern computers this is no longer necessary. Hedges, an author of two books on testing and one on early childhood education, maintains that the testing going on is for all of the wrong reasons, i.e. (1) to evaluate teachers, (2) to compare students with one another, (3) to compare schools with one another. In his view tests should be used as the medical profession uses tests, i.e. to diagnose individual needs and thus to serve as a basis for how to help the student not just give him an A or an F. As he says, “What if when you go to the doctor he hands you a card which gives you a C- on your health. What the devil does that mean?” Instead, the doctor reviews the test data, analyzes it, and gives you a prescription. So why aren’t our schools doing that in education? The book is not only a clarion call to arms, but a practical How To. How to provide for individual differences. How to make sure your child will succeed in primary school. How to organize other than by grades. How to enable more independent study and encourage creativity in your youngster. How can parents tell if their school is any good? How to be clear on the objectives of the school. How should young children be graded and evaluated? This book is for superintendents and principals, as they are the leaders, for elementary teachers as they are the doers, for school board member as they are the policy makers, and for those parents, who want to know what an excellent elementary school should be like. It is not pie in the school dreaming, but a down to earth description of how things are versus how they might be in the modern up to date school. Consider just one of his practical tips for some parents. What can the parent of a a slightly immature child do to increase the probability his or her child will be a ‘smash hit?’ Here is how. Let us say that he can enter first grade at age six. Well, age six is 365 days. If this child was born January 1 he is 364 days younger than the child born on December 31. A whole year! Think what that means in terms of his growth, development, and readiness for first grade! So, throw in that many of the children will be more mature than his child. The result? His or her child is a failure in the eyes of the other kids who are doing so much better than he because America grades on the curve.

Take it from Erica - you can travel alone and live the life you've always wanted, and it doesn't need to be a complicated or scary process. In fact, becoming a solo traveler and claiming your personal adventure is one of the best things you can do for your life. People will tell you you're crazy, but do you really want to live your life according to what other people think? Are you really going to let fear stop you from reaching your dreams? You only have one life to live and it's up to you whether you're going to live it to the fullest or not. Now is the time to have the adventure you've always wanted!

Explores the larger social, political, and philosophical contexts in which the current vitriolic science vs. anti-science debates occur.

A raw, thought-provoking, first person account of a working class military veteran who left his native United States when Donald Trump rose to power. "I am the person. I did it. A lot of people declared they would leave America if Donald Trump were elected president. This is my story of leaving Trump's America and starting a new life in Canada".

A sobering account of a disenfranchised American working class and important policy solutions to the nation's economic inequalities One of the country's leading scholars on economics and social policy, Isabel Sawhill addresses the enormous divisions in American society--economic, cultural, and political--and what might be done to bridge them. Widening inequality and the loss of jobs to trade and technology has left a significant portion of the American workforce disenfranchised and skeptical of governments and corporations alike. And yet both have a role to play in improving the country for all. Sawhill argues for a policy agenda based on mainstream values, such as family, education, and work. Although many have lost faith in government programs designed to help them, there are still trusted institutions on both the local and the federal level that can deliver better job opportunities and higher wages to those who have been left behind. At the same time, the private sector needs to reexamine how it trains and rewards employees. This book provides a clear-headed and middle-way path to a better-functioning society in which personal responsibility is honored and inclusive capitalism and more broadly shared growth are once more the norm.