As I believe I mentioned in my review of his book, Popular Education and Its Discontents, Dr. Lawrence A. Cremin, Ph.D., was a well known education historian, president of Teachers College at Columbia, and late husband of someone we know from the puzzle parties we’ve attended.  I read the 150-page Popular Education and Its Discontents and found it interesting and fairly readable.  Dr. Cremin has also written three much longer volumes about the history of education in the United States and I decided to give one of these a try.  The Cal State L.A. library only had the first two and the second, American Education: The National Experience 1783-1876, has won the Pulitzer Prize.  I started reading it and I learned some things, though it wasn’t the easiest book to follow and I only got through part of it.  But I’m still writing a review because the copyright page says it’s OK to embody brief quotations in critical essays and reviews.

Unlike Popular Education and Its Discontents, American Education: The National Experience 1783-1876 is a long book of well over 500 pages.  It is organized into parts of 100-150 pages each that seem to be about the different ideas and social forces that shaped American education.  I only got through the first and less than half of the second part.  The first part, “The Kingdom of God” is about the religious movements and ideas.  Religious leaders believed that education would create a more pious populace and take the country to the proverbial millennium (I’m not sure what that means but it’s mentioned frequently in the book).  The primary religions involved are Protestant Christians especially the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregational churches.  The latter two are so active in education that Dr. Cremin refers to the interdominational movement as “Presbygational”.  It makes sense to me that the Methodists would be involved because they founded the college where I went for undergrad, Willamette University.  Dr. Cremin describes how Sunday school actually wasn’t religious in origin but was first used to offer “the rudiments of reading and writing to the children who worked during the week with the added benefit of keeping them off the streets for the Sabbath.” (Cremin, p. 66)  Later the churches took control of Sunday school and used to for evangelical purposes.  The final pages of the first part describe three religious movements, two that failed and one, the Latter Day Saints or Mormons, that succeeded.  A footnote mentions how founder Joseph Smith planned his city to have a population of fifteen to twenty thousand but only one thousand house lots “indicating that the average household size was expected to be between fifteen and twenty.” (p. 97)

I got through 1/3 or about 50 pages of the second part, The Virtuous Republic, that’s about education and government.  Like the first part, this one goes through ideas that shaped education and the people behind those ideas.  Dr. Cremin writes a lot about Thomas Jefferson.  He and many other leaders and Founding Fathers believed that education was needed to ensure the survival of the Republic.  An educated populace would commit fewer crimes, perform its duty to the country, and help the nation advance.  The subjects in primary education that Jefferson believed would achieve these goals were “reading, writing, arithmetic, mensuration, geography, and history.” (p. 110)  Mensuration is the act of measuring.  For higher education, Jefferson has interesting groupings of math and physics.  Pure mathematics consists of algebra, fluxions, geometry, and architecture while “physio-mathematics” consists of mechanics, statics, dynamics, pneumatics, acoustics, optics, astronomy, and geography.  I haven’t heard head of fluxions before.  It’s not in the Random House dictionary, though “flux” means flowing or continuous change among other things.  It’s also interesting that architecture is included in the pure mathematics grouping.

Other passages of part two touch on issues and ideas that are still discussed in the present day by education scholars.  In 1795 the Reverend Samuel Knox proposed that the country establish a national board of education that would ensure “identical curricula, identical textbooks, and identical standards prevailed.” (p. 123)  As we well know from history, this never happened.  Education evolved to be controlled by local and state boards.  The national Department of Education did not arise until the 1970’s and to this day only really has power over Federal funding.  Many other first world countries direct education at the national level and they arguably do a better job educating children.  In my studies of public education, I developed the belief that it was problematic that education was controlled by politicians and bureaucrats.  However, public control was part of American education leader Horace Mann’s design.  He believed that “popularly elected representatives rather than professional schoolmen” should have ultimate oversight since the people should control what is taught to their children.” (p. 139)  This strikes me as a noble idea, but with all the politics in education, I wonder if it really plays out.

In the past and today the texts used by educators are important education tools.  Dr. Cremin describes some interesting texts used in the late 18th and early 19th century in the U.S., especially those used in religious teaching.  The story “George’s Feast” is a story about a boy who finds some strawberries and would have enjoyed them but gives them to his sick mother instead.  The Tract Society published the Illustrated Family Christian Almanac that urged youngsters to “Work! Work!”  That sounds like the song “Work” by Hockey.

I learned some interesting information about life in early America.  Along with spelling and reading comprehension, educational texts stressed oral English since “reading had for centuries been a social phenomenon and indeed most reading had been carried on aloud and in groups.” (p. 71)  That’s interesting that people would read aloud as entertainment.  I guess that’s what they did before TV, movies, the Internet, and video games.  Something else that was interesting was that Joseph Palmer, one of the co-founders of Bronson Alcott’s failed Transcendentalist Society in Fruitlands, Massachusetts, “wore a long beard when beards were out of fashion and actually suffered a brief imprisonment for that in Worcester, Massachusetts.” (p. 90)

There were a few things mentioned that reminded me of books I’d read recently.  Bronson Alcott’s more deeply held view of human nature “was decisively confirmed by his studying of the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.” (p. 86)  Coleridge was one of the Lake Poets or Lakers I read about in the Dictionary of English Literature last year.  Two separate passages mention how education leaders believed that the education of women was important.  Benjamin Rush believed young women needed training as wives and mothers so that they could instruct their sons in the principles of liberty and government.  Horace Mann went further when he declared in 1853 “The rulers of our country need knowledge (God only knows how much they need it!)  But mothers need it more; for they determine, to a great extent, the very capacity of the rulers’ minds to acquire knowledge and apply it.” (p. 143)  This sentiment is similar to Greg Mortensen’s, the real life protagonist of Three Cups of Tea who builds schools in Pakistan to teach all children but primarily to teach girls.  They will hopefully grow up and teach their sons values that dissuade them from fundamentalist terrorism.

The earlier sections of Dr. Cremin’s text give a few widely held believe about education.  Thomas Paine emphasized that children and young people need to be taught to seek knowledge on their own since ultimately self-education was the truest education.  He stated, “Every person of learning is finally his own teacher.” (p. 22)  William Ellery Channing realized that schools and schoolteachers would carry the greatest burden of popular education. (p. 33)  I believe President Obama or Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said something similar, that the teachers in the classrooms had the greatest impact on the education of children.

I got through 150 of the 500+ pages of American Education: 1783-1876.  I got through the Rule of Fifty and thought I could keep going.  I was learning some interesting things but I found the book to be very slow going.  It was more informative reading than pleasure reading.  It’s more of a textbook to be studied in class or used for research than something to be read from cover to cover.  Dr. Cremin obviously knew education and history.  He knew that all events, and movements are shaped by ideas and he explores the origins of these ideas and the people behind them.  The book is a survey of these people and ideas rather than a listing of events one after another.  It’s the combination of these ideas that formed American education, and that, along with later ideas, evolved in to the educational system we have today.

On Father’s Day, Sunday, June 21, 2009, we took Dad (my father-in-law) out to dinner at The Yard House in L.A. Live.  In the recent “Best of” issue of the L.A. Downtown News, the Yard House was voted best L.A. Live restaurant and best American food.  It’s actually a national chain with most locations in Socal.  There’s one at Victoria Gardens shopping destination in Rancho Cucamonga, another at the Shoppes at Chino Hills, and another in Pasadena.  I believe that the first one was in Long Beach.  The one at L.A. Live is in the building at the north end of the plaza.  It’s in the northwest corner of the building.  To get there we passed the Wolfgang Puck on the southwest end that didn’t look like it was open yet.  We walked by the tall Ritz Carlton and Marriott that were under construction.  There was a sign directing us to the Yard House, Trader Vic’s, and Rosa Moreno, the New York-based Mexican restaurant chain.  At last, we found it just past the Starbucks.

The Yard House at L.A. Live has lots of patio seating.  I believe I saw in an issue of the L.A. Downtown News that it is either largest or the second largest restaurant in Downtown L.A. by number of seats.  We heard a little about it and had done some research online.  My cousin had been to the one at Victoria Gardens.  He said they had many choices for drinks, including ones that come in the half-yard size glasses that give the place its name, but that the food was overpriced and not very good.  Online we learned that the Yard House has between 100-250 different beers on tap depending on the location.  They had a list of all the beers including Alaskan Amber, Red Hook, and Miller Genuine Draft.  They seemed to lean towards draft beer.  San Miguel beer wasn’t on the list.  Their website also listed the type of music they played that mostly consisted of classic rock.  There were at least two Bad Company songs listed.  Also online we found nutritional information for all the items on their large menu that helped us and Mom (my mother-in-law) pick our orders.

We entered the restaurant and they gave us a choice between indoor and outdoor seating.  We chose indoor since the cool June weather was continuing.  The place didn’t seem very crowded both inside and outside.  They had us sit at a long table between two long and comfortable benches.  Inside it was a bit dark and there were many flat screen TVs hanging from the corners of the walls and from the ceiling.  They showed either the Dodgers-Angels game or the WNBA L.A. Sparks-Sacramento Monarchs game.  Our booth was slightly elevated and from it we could see the long bar wrapped around an island in the middle of the indoor space.  Behind the bar were the beer tap faucets for all the different beers.  Pipes went from the bar across the ceiling to another room full of kegs.  Above the faucets hung the namesake half-yard glasses.  Also near the entrance was a room with many bottles of wine in racks.

The music sounded just like they described on the Yard House website: classic and mellow rock.  They also played some Country music.  I didn’t hear any Bad Company but I did hear some Credence Clearwater Revival and “Man on the Moon” by REM.

Our server brought us menus that had many categories such as appetizers, soups/salads, burgers, sandwiches, house specialties, steaks, and seafood.  There were also pages with all the beers on tap and another page with other beverages including wines.  We ordered and passed the menus back to the server.  They first brought the bottle of Blackstone Merlot that Dad ordered.  He had wanted another less expensive Merlot but they only had that by the glass.  After he had ordered the wine the server asked to see my brother- and sister-in-law’s ID’s.  Dad asked how come they didn’t want to see his ID.  Those that drank it said the Blackstone Merlot was good.  Next they brought the lobster dip appetizer that was made with four cheeses.  I took the others’ word for it that it was good.  They finished it, scraping it out of the bowl.  Next they brought us our entrees.  I had originally planned to get the chicken rice bowl because it was one of the few without cheese.  But data analysis revealed that it had a lot of sodium and the website also said that they work to meet their patron’s dietary needs.  So I ordered the avocado-Swiss burger without the Swiss cheese.

My burger tasted pretty good.  It was cooked well done but not overcooked and only a little bit greasy.  The fries were thin and crispy and weren’t an excessive amount.  The burger was fairly large and I finished it because I had had a fairly light lunch earlier in the day.  However, it may have been too much food because I suffered some digestive irritation for a few days afterward.  It may also have had dairy in it.  My brother-in-law thought it looked like they had put butter on the bun.  I thought it was just oil but he may have been right.  The others enjoyed their entrees especially Mom with her angel hair pasta and my wife with her surf and turf burger, a burger that came with lobster.  

After we finished and left the Yard House we walked around the north building of L.A. Live a bit.  The building houses many restaurants.  In addition to the Yard House, Starbucks, Wolfgang Puck, Trader Vic’s, and Rosa Moreno, there’s also Kutsaya, Rock & Fish, The Farm of Beverly Hills, the Conga Room with its associated restaurant, Boca, and Lucky Strike Lanes.  The Conga Room is a salsa dance club that used to be just down the street from my Miracle Mile apartment many years ago.  We visited Lucky Strike Lanes, an upscale bowling alley.  It’s clean and stylish but I felt that the lighting seemed a bit dim for bowling.  My sister-in-law said they charged $25 per hour (per person?) plus $4 for sock rental and $6 for shoe rental.  I didn’t know that bowling alleys charged for sock rental.  Lucky Strike Lanes is a far cry from Channel Bowl in Juneau, Alaska.  Despite it being Father’s Day most places at L.A. Live didn’t seem very crowded.

As for the Yard House, my cousin’s assessment was more or less correct.  The food wasn’t that bad or overpriced but it wasn’t one of the better places we’ve tried.  I’d probably think differently if I still drank beer.

As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, Michael Connelly is my favorite writer of mysteries that take place in the Los Angeles area.  I’ve read others such as Walter Mosley whose Easy Rawlins mysteries take place in the L.A. of past eras and Robert Crais whose main character I found to be a bit unbelievable and egotistical.  I think I first heard of Connelly from reading the old L.A. Times books reviews between 2001 and 2006 when I used to get the paper.  He’s been writing mysteries since the early 1990’s and before that he was a crime reporter for the Times and other papers.  Most of his mysteries have detective Harry (short for Hieronymus) Bosch as the main character.  Other Connelly mysteries have different main characters and one of these, Blood Work, was made into a movie starring Clint Eastwood in the early 2000’s.  I had read the first two books in the Bosch series: The Black Echo and The Black Ice from the early 1990’s and I enjoyed them.  They both take place during the time they were written.  The cases usually include elements that are personal to Bosch.  There’s also always an interesting twist or two making for an unexpected resolution.

Echo Park is a later installment in the Bosch series having been written and taking place in 2005-2006.  Bosch now uses a cell phone regularly but he still relies on his younger colleagues for use of computers.  By this point he must be in his 50’s.  He is a Vietnam Veteran and a longtime LAPD detective who has even tried retirement.  He now works in the open/unsolved unit.  He was named after the painter of the same name.  His mother, a prostitute who had to give him up to the state, felt like life in L.A. was like a Hieronymus Bosch painting.  I remember studying these paintings in my art history class in college.  They contained many small people committing various acts of debauchery.  I think one of his works is called “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. His paintings contrasted with those of Alberecht Durer, who painted large, divine-like images of people.  To continue with the art history digression, the Edward Hopper painting “Night Hawks” is featured prominently in The Black Echo.  We saw that painting at the Tate Modern Art Museum in London back in 2004.

Not all the Harry Bosch books have the words Black or Echo in the title.  I think the third in the series is called The Concrete Blond.  The namesake L.A. neighborhood in Echo Park contains important elements of the story.  Connelly is familiar with the Echo Park of 2006.  It’s a neighborhood to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and he writes about it: “These days Echo Park was a favored destination of another class of newcomer – the young and hip.  The cool.  Artists, musicians and writers were moving in.  Cafés and vintage clothing shops were squeezing in next to the bodegas and mariscos stands.  A wave of gentrification was washing across the flats and up the hillsides below the baseball stadium.  It meant the character of the place was changing.  It meant real estate prices were going up, pushing out the working class and the gangs.” (Connelly, p. 57-58)  That’s the Echo Park I remember from when we used to leave in nearby Downtown L.A.  Connelly captures it well in his description of the old houses and hilly streets.  He describes how Figueroa Street branches off into the hilly, shorter street, Figueroa Terrace and finally Figueroa Lane.  A look at my Thomas Guide doesn’t exactly confirm this.  Figueroa Street actually extends all the way into Eagle Rock and to the 134.  It’s supposedly one of the longest streets in the U.S.

The reason I picked the book Echo Park, even though I usually try to read mysteries in sequence, is that my wife recently went to a restaurant called Bird’s in Hollywood for a girls’ night out.  She had the meat loaf and didn’t think it was anything special.  When researching the restaurant before going there she learned that it was mentioned in the book Echo Park by Michael Connelly.   It turns out that the accused murderer in the book liked to go to Bird’s when he lived on Franklin in Hollywood.  He enjoyed their roast chicken.  Bird’s isn’t the only restaurant mentioned that sounded familiar to me.  Bosch and his sometime ladyfriend eat out at the Water Grill in Downtown.  Later she brings him meat loaf from Just Another Restaurant or JAR in Santa Monica.  I haven’t been to those places because, respectively, they are out of my price range and geographic range.

Echo Park isn’t the only part of L.A. featured in the book.  Bosch spends some time in downtown L.A. because he works at Parker Center, the main LAPD station, since replaced.  The DWP building is also featured.  Much of the action also takes place in Hollywood, the surrounding hills, and Griffith Park.  The book begins with a flashback to 1993 when Bosch and his then partner check out an apartment connected to the case.  It’s in a (fictional?) complex called the Hightower that’s built along the side of a hill.  Though the apartment has an excellent view of the city, it’s only 400 square feet.  The rent in 1993 is $1,000 per month most likely due to the view.

I enjoy reading Connelly because he knows L.A. and he knows police work.  He describes how detectives must assemble “murder books” for each homicide case that contain everything connected to the case.  This includes a record of all events and things done in the investigation.  When a police officer fires his weapon, Connelly describes the process of the Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) investigation.  He knows all the acronyms, proceedings, and resources such as Autotrack, the computer database that “could provide an individual’s address history through utility and cable hookups, DMV records, and other sources.  It was tremendously useful in tracing people back through time.” (p. 55)

I also like that Bosch is an imperfect protagonist.  He has theories that turn out to be false and he has a tendency for recklessness and bending the rules when he feels lives are on the line.  But he’s also very smart, thorough, and willing to approach questions from different angles.  I like how Connelly takes us through his thought processes.  He also gives us much insight into Bosch as a person: his past as an orphan ward of the state and later a Vietnam vet, even his past acquaintances and relationships that I’m guessing were explored in earlier books in the series.  Bosch is a big fan of jazz and in one scene plays a CD of John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk live at Carnegie Hall recorded in 1957.  The tape had sat in an unmarked box in the national archives for 50 years before a “Library of Congress guy was going through all the boxes and performance taps and just recognizes what they had there . . . It’s a miracle to think it was there all the time.  It took the right person to find it.  To recognize it.” (p. 147)  Bosch uses this as a model for his detective work.

The plot and twists of Echo Park aren’t quite as compelling as The Black Echo and The Black Ice but it’s still very good.  There are many characters with different motives, both political and personal, and some are more than they initially seem.  I didn’t find it hard to follow the seemingly complicated plot.  Everything isn’t resolved until the end and, even then, not everything is explained.  But enough is to satisfy Bosch and the reader.  Each book is its own story, yet in total the series tells the continuing story of Bosch and some of the other recurring characters.