Basically, this page functions as a rolling list of things we find interesting.

Books About School

John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory SchoolingWeapons of Mass Instruction and The Underground History of American EducationAn Underground History of American Education, both of which ask the question:  are your kids being trained for subservience?

Daniel Greenberg’s Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on TrackTurning Learning Right Side Up.  Greenberg is the founder of the Sudbury Valley School, an interesting and somewhat terrifying way of doing things.

David Gilmour’s The Film Club is a beautiful look at parenting and movies.  Whether he realizes it or not, it also makes an excellent case for many of my own pet theories regarding education.

Music

We listen to Barton Hollow, the debut by The Civil Wars.  A lot.

Also, we’ve recently discovered Jason Isbell, who happens to be from our state.  This does not diminish his awesomeness.

I will always have a massive and uncontrollable man-crush on David Bazan.

Two albums by Brand New are spectacular:  Deja Entendu and The Devil & God Are Raging Inside of Me. Their first album was too teenagery and their third album sucked.  If you buy them, don’t tell me about it.  If you can only afford one, get Devil & God.

Fiction

Tana French’s The Likeness: A NovelThe Likeness was exceedingly creepy and elegant, and turns on the most inventive plot point I’ve read in at least two years.  Matches up quite well with her previous work, In the Woods.

Non-Fiction

Love Wins, by Rob Bell, is a nice, controversial (but readable) book about how hell, as most Christians have interpreted it, might not exist.  Also, you might check out Jesus Wants to Save Christians, Velvet Elvis, or Sex God (which isn’t at all dirty, despite its title)

Tech Toys

You could always buy an original iPad or a Kindle here, and we’d be able to afford one much sooner.