Because it was designed by architects and ignores everything book designers know about readability, the book is almost unreadable. Important statements are put in our lines of huge text in a white font on a black background with nothing else on the page, for instance, and illustrations are thrown on the page in a bunch so it's hard to figure out what's going on. However, it has some very interesting ideas for school design, some more workable than others, and it serves as an excellent starting point for thinking about schools outside the "eggcrate" factory-style model. Having worked in some schools with odd-shaped rooms and meandering hallways and others originally designed with the "open classroom" no-walls approach, I would argue that it's more important to change the belief system of a school than its building plan, however. ( )

I want to give this book to every teacher I know. It is a collection of all of the major thinkers of progressive education and their ideas. It is eminently browsable and inspiring. All of the research that supports each small essay is cited so that you can easily get to the source and read more on whichever topic interests you most.

The binding, however, is utter crap. I didn't need a bookmark because I could just go to the pages that were still glued in. The sewn binding is holding, but I'm disappointed that it isn't more durable. This is a book that I will want to open and browse again and again. ( )

A freebie from work! The Massive Change of K-12?

Authored by a group of architects and other designers, this book is a perfect companion to Loertscher, Koechlin, and Zwann’s The New School Learning Commons because it has a vision of physical space in which constructivist learning can flourish. Each of the 79 ideas take a whole page in the book with supplementary explanations, ideas, illustrations, photos, and case studies to give some substance to the idea. The ideas begin with philosophy of education and migrate toward spaces that accomplish those ideas. And, the book has a website where the reader can make comments on the various ideas (we added lots of ideas from the learning commons perspective hoping to catch the attention of an architect or two). While many can’t build a new facility, this book provides enough ideas that much could be done to accomplish the vision of a physical learning commons by reading and applying its ideas. Bookshelves and banks of computers can be moved from the center of the room to create a flexible space. And with the question, “If it doesn’t move, does it belong? As a guiding principal, getting a group of folks together for a new look at a learning space would provide a list of ideas on which to base serious plans. This is one of the best design books we have seen and if you are planning any reservations at all, this book is a must.

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