This is an essential book for anyone interested in education. Its comprehensive coverage gives much background, even at the risk of being distracting when you want to follow-up on the leads to so many interesting source-books and links. Though you are told to dip in anywhere, you must read the first section, esp. "The Industrial Age System of Education" by Senge and "A Primer to the Five Disciplines" (Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, Team Learning and Systems Thinking) (pp. 27-93).

The authors consider this book a "prequel" to their other books about learning organizations (p.7). That's true. Though this is the most recent book, you can start with this one and go on to the others for further depth. Some repetitions may only serve well for mastery.

The whole book is very readable and informative. Concepts are clearly explained. It follows the same excellent editing format as The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook and The Dance of Change.

When you get too enthused by so many ideas and success stories of innovations, heed the advice for "The Strategy of Organizational Change". "Focus on one or two new priorities for change, not twelve. Most school systems are already overwhelmed with change. They don't need a new initiative; they need an approach that consolidates existing initiatives, eliminates "turf battles," and makes it easier for people to work together toward common ends." (p.25)

There are just too many passages that you wish to quote. The book is a treasure mine. However, for those (esp. busy administrators) who find the volume too daunting or verbose (592 pages!) and still want to get a handle on launching into transforming their schools into learning organisations, I would recommend, "Ten Steps to a Learning Organization" and start with the simple questionnaire given there.

If you are an educator, parent or administrator, this handbook will enable you to obtain the crucial, leading edge knowledge in learning styles, multiple intelligences, personal neuro-physiology that enables one to "know thyself." Self-esteem and self-awareness, cognitive learning, including the necessary skills to make one prepared for "life at 21 years old," are also main considerations when teaching students to capitalize on their individual strenghts and wisdom.

Schools that Learn also emphasizes the importance of mastery, synergizing curricula presented, and authentic assessment vs. basing students knowledge purely on standardized test-taking.

This helpful manual is extremely important for educators, administrators, and parents, to read as it combines the aforementioned information and applies it to "building strengths that will be useful in career decision making."

Finally,Schools that Learn emphasizes the importance of keeping a "spirit-filled" outlook while learning, the extreme helpfulness of a mastermind group, accelerated and lifelong education, and of course giving back what you have learned to the community. This "cause and effect" is often forgotten in busy professtional lives, but truly ensures success for those who "get it."

SCHOOLS THAT LEARN is both a visionary and practical guide for how schools must evolve to meet the needs of students in the next 20 years. The use of multiple authors and perspectives mirrors some of the changes our schools must make to meet the needs of a new age. As Professional Development Director at a diverse Jesuit high school in San Francisco, I recommend this book to any educator, K-college. Senge's work will help prepare students for an era requiring a strong traditional academic foundation coupled with the need for creativity, and the social, emotional, and intellectual skills to work in high performing teams needed to rebuild our world.

A funny book that actually will make you laugh out loud. Beautifully written with engaging and unexpected characters. Peter J Smith is a wonderful writer. Do yourself a favour and buy this book today!

This book is conceivably the funniest book that I have ever read! A must-read for anyone with a quirky and creative sense of humor!

I love this book. Even after several readings, it still causes me to laugh aloud. "Make Believe Ballrooms" has seriously affected the way I look at Maxfield Parrish paintings, and that is probably a good thing. If only there were more . . . .

My sister and I think this is a GREAT book. We love how diverse and unique it is.
Does Mr. Smith have an e-mail adress?
Thanks!

This collection is an absolute pleasure to browse. Rising like a phoenix from all the "stuff" we usually overlook, Buchanan-Smith has compiled a work - both sublime and stark - that forces the reader to acknowledge the potential value of everything.

Speck is billed as a 'curious collection of uncommon things': from close-up photos of lint to very different bottles of sand from beaches around the world, this pairs unusual images of common things with reflections on what makes them unique. Packed with color photos and intriguing essays.

Unlike all the other Wigglesworth books I've read, this book is especially powerful because it's a NEW book (1993). It's so good to hear Madden affirming that THIS generation truly can know God like this past hero of the faith. For the hungry, I think it will strengthen your feeble knees and lift up your weary hands as you search for the utter fullness of God. (It has mine.) Those who seek truly will find! So let your hunger propel you right on through to Him. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they SHALL be filled."

Everything about this book is insipired by the Holy Spirit. P.J. Madden's desire is to give the christian a viable way to join "God's End-time Army." In fact, Madden claims (I hope he wouldn't lie) that he felt impressed to write this book, with unpublished material, but when he made no headway, he abandoned the prodject. He lives in Australia, and when he made a trip to the Home of Peace, an old missionary home, in Oakland, CA, he found thirty-seven messages of Wigglesworth's!

Each of the six chapters begins with a story from Wigglesworth's life that illustrates the sermon to follow actually lived out. The wonderful thing about this book is that its focus is not to teach more about Wigglesworth's life, but to teach the reader to walk closer to Christ. Madden does this by following each of the sermons with five or six life keys. He picks out the meat of the sermons and expounds upon them using the Wigglesworth's life, previous sermons in the book, the word of God, and just plain writing what the Spirit placed inside of him.

This book WILL help you walk closer to the Lord if you prayerfully read it with an open heart.

Immediately, God will grasp your heart through the words spoken by Mr. Wigglesworth to the point of overwhelmness. P. J. Madden did a great job in conveying an understanding of the nature of Smith Wigglesworth to the point that you will desire the same desire as Wigglesworth, a brokenness of spirit toward God. My faith was built up to the point of overflowing everytime I picked up the book. A must read for anyone whose desire is to know more of God.

Over the past year, for a project I've read a wide variety of encyclopedias on religious movements, religious issues, and religions in general. Out of more than 20, Smith's encyclopedia is certainly the best. Unlike some volumes of the "Concise Encyclopedia of X" series, Smith has reasonably detailed entries, ranging from a paragraph to several pages. The articles themselves are very clear and well-written, with suggestions for further reading. The articles cover an enormous range of personalities, doctrine, and history of Baha'i. Fascinating.

I have been impressed by the clarity and eloquence of the short essays under such difficult to describe topics as "the soul." The references to primary works where the reader can find more information are accurate and easy to use, although the Encyclopedia itself does an admirable job of answering most of the questions I've had. It is richly illustrated, with an easy to read type.

This book has a lot of information about the Baha'i religion, its founders, and basically anything related to Baha'i. With great photographs and descriptions, it is a must for anyone who wants to understand Baha'i better or who wants specific information.

For all stargazers who have university level math, and those equipped with lighter high school stuff, this book is a gem. In a few pages, and with nothing more than a pocket calculator, it allows you to explore the universe in a way which only a few hundred years ago was only possible with extensive state-support and massive buildings such as Stonehenge, state-sponsored observatories, and teams of pedantic astrologers and stargazers.

Starting from the simple building blocks (converting your local time to Universal time), it progresses to more and more complex calculations, until finally at the end, you can calculate eclipses and planetary orbits. All the formulas needed for doing this are given in the book, and explained in great detail with many diagrams. All relevant astronomical data is also given. And for every calculation, a sample example is carried out with real numbers, which you can trace along with, so by the end of it you understanding is complete, practically as well as theoretically.

A must read for any astronomy buff. I highly recommend it. It produces the information age equivalent of that feeling of satisfaction you get when you build a telescope and look out onto the heavens yourself--without any intermediaries. Astronomy and stargazing are the activities which were the genesis of the scientific revolution, more than 6000 years ago. This book shows you just how its done.

I am a Chinese from Hong Kong, China. I first read this book was on 1985 on Public Library, it the the only computational astronomy related book. At that time, I was being a secondary school student. This book I found is a very good on basic concept in positional astronomy and other fundamental knowledges concerning in basic ephemeris work. The English of this book is plain and be within the level of Hong Kong secondary school students. Starting from this book, I was being attracted on computational astronomy till now, recently I am in the way of writing of homepage of computational astronomy in Chinese, with the "practical astronomy with your calculator" as paradigm. I am so highly recommended this book.

Don't be misled by the title. The recipes supplied by Peter Duffett-Smith are aimed at making calculations easier with a hand held calculator. However they are easily adapted for creating utilities on personal computers. The material should be easily handled by anyone whose completed highschool algebra and some trigonometry.

The organization and format is well thought out. The earliest chapters deal with time and coordinates which are used in the more complex problems such as computing planet positions later in the book.

Each concept is explained in straight forward language and conventional algebraic formulas are supplied. I found this especially useful for programmers using higher languages such as C,Pascal or Java. Then a step by step practical example is provided that is suitable for a scientific hand calculator. Duffett-Smith is careful about displaying units; a mindfield for most scientific calculations.

My only minor criticism is that some of the typos errors could leave a user quite frustrated. On pp108 I found the value of Tp=0.240850 gave the correct answer while the tabulated value is 0.240852. Similarly, I on page 129, after repeated checks, I got a value of 7.08...AU for Rho compared with the value of 8.13AU in the book. The text cites a 7.2AU value from the Astronomical Almanac.

Otherwise this is one neat addition to the bookshelf of any amateur astronomer of individual interested in astromical calculations.

I grew up reading this book, the illustrations are wonderful and are so detailed. The best pictures are at the beginning of the book, with a map of the area, which details the cold winter land to the north and the warm summer land of the trumpets to the south. The pictures use real wildlife and down the side of each page their is a numbered key, which relates to the specific item on the picture. Such as Ladybirds, Robins and Blackberries. The story is marvellous, as the trumpets hibernate through the winter, and have to take a underground train to their lair. But trouble is in store for them when the enemies of the north advance. But with the help of the animals, the trumpets save the day.

I have had this book for something close to ten years. I'm seventeen, and I still count this as one of my favorite books (right up there on my list with Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis and If On A Winter's Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino). I used to spend hours with this book, loving the detail of the illustrations and the creativity of the story. The illustrations alone are worth the purchase! Find it, get it, and you'll love it!

For 3rd grade, I brought this book for show and tell. My classmates were ooed and awweed by the amazing details and pictures that were included on every page. The puzzles that were hidden within the binding and other areas of this wonderful book brought my imagination to life. I'm well too old to be reading books like this anymore. But I sure wish I could buy this book once again and put it on my shelves. Along with two other favorites...."Anamalia" and the "11th Hour" these books are definetely classics.

For the most part, I am enjoying this book. The diet is based on the food pyramid, and the exercise program has do-able daily choices. My only complaints are the following: First, the page quality is very poor. I felt like I had to be really careful turning the pages or they would tear. Second, some of the exercise photos show very poor form, like knees extending past ankles is lunges. All in all, it's a good book.

Based on official guidelines from the Surgeon General and CDC, Combat Fat! by fitness, diet, and exercise authority Andrew Flach is a solidly written, "user friendly" guide to healthy eating, proper exercise, and a medically sound weight loss plan to improve personal overall fitness and health. Body-mindful recipes, stretches, workouts, and more fill the pages of this handy and very highly recommended informational resource.

This is an awesome program. I have been confused by the complexity of other programs. I read the entire book in one day and found the advice straightforward and easy to implement in my everyday life. I am losing weight and getting fitter than I have been in years.

This book is a collection of theoretical summaries, reports, analyses, and strategies all quite useful to anyone interested in generating some thinking and action around change. The team of five writers (Peter Senge, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner) provide some original work, but also serve as editors to a vast quantity of material drawn from practitioners, theorists, and writers in the field of organizational improvement. According to Senge, "great teams are learning organizations - groups of people who, over time, enhance their capacity to create what they truly desire to create." (p.18) This book is really about creating and building great teams. The learning organization develops its ability to reflect on, discuss, question, and change its current and past practices. To do this, people and groups in the organization need to meaningfully pursue the study and practice of the five disciplines - personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking.

The learning organization - Senge's vision for the productive, competitive, and efficient institutions of the future - is in a continuous state of change. Four fundamental questions continuously serve to check and guide a group's learning and improvement (see page 49): (1) Do you continuously test your experiences? ("Are you willing to examine and challenge your sacred cows - not just during crises, but in good times?") (2) Are you producing knowledge? ("Knowledge, in this case, means the capacity for effective action.") (3) Is knowledge shared? ("Is it accessible to all of the organization's members?") (4) Is the learning relevant? ("Is this learning aimed at the organization's core purpose?") If these questions represent the organization's compass, the five disciplines are its map.

Each of the five disciplines is explained, and elaborated in its own lengthy section of the book. In the section on "Systems Thinking" (a set of practices and perspectives, which views all aspects of life as inter-related and playing a role in some larger system), the authors build on the idea of feedback loops (reinforcing and balancing) and introduce five systems archetypes. They are: "fixes that backfire", "limits to growth", "shifting the burden", "tragedy of the commons", and "accidental adversaries". In the section on "Personal Mastery", the authors argue that learning starts with each person. For organizations to learn and improve, people within the organization (perhaps starting with its core leadership) must learn to reflect on and become aware of their own core beliefs and visions. In "Mental Models", the authors argue that learning organizations need to explore the assumptions and attitudes, which guide their institutional directions, practices, and strategies. Articles on scenario planning, the ladder of inference, the left-hand column, and balancing inquiry and advocacy offer practical strategies to investigate our personal mental models as well as those of others in the organization. In "Shared Vision", the authors make the case for the stakeholders of an organization to continually adapt their vision ("an image of a desired future"), values ("how we get to travel to where we want to go"), purpose ("what the organization is here to do"), and goals ("milestones we expect to reach before too long"). The section offers many strategies and perspectives on how to move an organization toward continuous reflection. In "Team Learning", the authors rely mostly on the work of William Isaacs and others, and make a case for educating organization members in the processes and skills of dialogue and skillful discussion.

This book is enlightening and informative. It has already found a place on my shelf for essential reference books.

Senge's second serving of the Learning Organization is filled with practical tips and real-life examples from companies and organizations that have embraced the teachings of the Learning Organization successfully.

The Book is a collaboration of several writers who do a superb job of unraveling the web that is the learning organization. At times, it may seem to the reader that the book is a labyrinth of disjointed concepts and ideas. However, if you have read 'The Fifth Discipline' you will find no problems following the concepts introduced. In fact, you will even understand why the writers have chosen to introduce them in that fashion. If you have not read "The Fifth Discipline', do not despair, it will take a little longer to get 'the whole picture'.
The Book is divided into 8 main sections:

1) Getting Started addresses the basic concepts and ideas of the Learning Organization.
2) Systems Thinking (the fifth discipline) - Many people have argued that Senge should have delegated the fifth discipline until the end, however, without Systems Thinking, your vision is disjointed and incomplete.
3) Personal Mastery covers the area of individual development and learning. The chapters here are among the most valuable in the area of self-growth and self-improvement.
4) Mental Models - These are the pictures that you have in your head which represent reality.
5) Shared Vision - You've seen the whole picture, you've developed and you understand how you see the world. Now you need to find a common cause with the rest of the people in your organization, something that you all work for.
6) Team Learning - As you work with other people in teams or groups, you need to pass the stuff that you have learnt and the wisdom you've acquired to others. At this stage, the learning is no longer that of the individual, but the group.
7) Arenas of Practice - (Self explanatory)
8) Frontiers - Where do we go from here.

If you are interested in development, learning, growth, leadership, gaining a competitive edge whether at an organizational or personal level, then this book is for you. In fact, I'd venture to say that this is book is for everyone.

Everyone who reads THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE comes away excited about the benefits of having a learning organization. Yet many get stuck in a rut as they try to implement what they learned in that superb book. THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE FIELD BOOK helps fill in that lack of understanding with dozens of questions, examples and exercises. You'll have a ball with this, even if you only use a little part to focus on where you need help. A great related book for building a learning organization is THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION, which teaches a new thinking process that simplifies and speeds up learning for an organization. It also shows you where you need to get rid of old thinking that is holding you back. You should read and use both.

This novel is one of a series, and makes the presumption that you have read the earlier novels in the series, with references to previous action. It is written in a narative style. The main character is not fully identified by name until page 74 (part of the assumption that you have read the previous novels). Tony Whats-his-name from book one in the series reappears, along with other characters from previous books. There are numerous digressions, and a tendency to use foreign language terms.

The plot is a whodunit as various characters search for the lost Trojan gold that disappeared from Germany during the final days of World War II. In the chaos at the end of the war, many valuable items disappeared, apparently looted. Now a story has emerged that the Trojan gold (artifacts that had been in a German museum) was carried to safety and hidden. Many people have an interest, either for museums or for their own profit.

With two people murdered, and an assortment of people just happening to be on the scene, there are questions about some people's motives (other than the fact that several men are trying to seduce Vicky). Vicky finds her life in danger, as various people follow clues in attempts to track down the gold. There are indications that it had been hidden in a schrank (a type of wooden cabinet). The good guys prevail over the bad guys, but the story leaves things unfinished and the schrank disassembled.

This book was so funny....I hadn't read a Vicky Bliss novel before, so I was surprised by the cast of characters that showed up. They were all so funny because it seemed as if they had nothing in common. I like Vicky much better than Ms. Peabody that I too am hoping that Ms. Peters will return to Vicky and give us more great adventures to laugh about. The one thing I was not very clear on at the ending was weather somone actually found the treasure or not? Did John have something to do with its disappearance?

This book was such a satisfaction to read and reread. I've grown so attached to Peabody and Vicky Bliss, not to mention their fellow characters, that waiting for Barbera Mertz to write more books about them is torture. I hope Ms. Mertz lives to an active old age for the selfish reason that I want her to keep pumping these books out as long as possible.

In Trojan Gold she really delivers the good stuff. John and Shmidt's personalities get a good filling out, reading it is like eating Godiva chocolates, only better. Words can't say enough. In her previous Bliss mystery, Sihloette in Scarlet, the plot seemed weak, but the follow up made up for it. Apologies for misspellings.