Play-Mastermind.com

I was VERY disappointed in this book. As someone who has been working in the classroom for the last year, I was disgusted and disappointed with the tactics to gain control in the classroom this book suggests. I was offended by the stressful and manipulative tactics to endear yourself to a student, and I feel this book is NOT a good book for current or prospective teachers. As a teacher I work with who has 30 years of experience said to me, “as teachers, we can’t solve every child’s problems, but we have to try.”…this book suggests tactics that get you home on time and leave the child with more stress, worry and confusion.
Rating: 1 / 5

This book sounds good at first. However, if you read more closely and critically, you will notice that the writers are encouraging manipulation.

I read the parenting version and was horrified. They recommend putting your pet to sleep if a child forgets to feed it, taking meals away from children, corporal punishment and an ice cold approach to talking with kids.

Great short term results with dire long term consequences for parents, teachers and children.
Rating: 2 / 5

This book is entirely about how to manipulate and control your students without them realizing it. The book doesn’t seem to address getting to the root of the problem or listening to students. The only this mentioned was how to get students to do what is expected. The first pages tell of a principal who ignores a student until he confesses to having stolen from a teacher. The student just asks to apologize for the deed, but no one ever bothers to find out why he did it in the first place. Another suggestion for showing “empathy” was that a father told his daughter that she must feel horrible getting such horrible grades and that he couldn’t possibly make her feel worse by pointing out she was failing. Then he told her that she would end up repeating school, but hopefully her friends wouldn’t “dump” her because she was behind them. First of all this is not empathy, empathy is being able to understand what someone is going through. This involves having felt the same way. The father obviously hadn’t and used his mock empathy to make her feel stupid and worse than she already did. He never got to the root of the problem, why her grades are bad, and she lost trust in him as well. What good did this do. If she gets better grades, why is she doing it, so she will be smarter, to show her father, or to stay with her friends. What if they needed to move away and she no longer had these friends anyway. What would be her motivation to get better grades then.

Everything in this book was about finding ways to control and manipulate your classroom. The punishments were not logical and I believe the authors are confusing control with love, or at least with conditional love. I am appalled and want to return this book, what a waste of time and money.

Rating: 1 / 5

This book was in excellent shape as promised. It was mailed and received promptly. I will purchase from this seller again.
Rating: 5 / 5

This is a great tool for both the new teacher or the experienced teacher who just wants to read about the profession. I recommend it as a great book!
Rating: 5 / 5