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I want to read the book Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track only if I would be able to understand it without first doing more than about a few books worth of other reading I have not yet done. My first question is

Would almost everyone who got a high school diploma in Canada be able to understand that book even if they never took any more education after that or read any books they didn't have to read in school?

If the answer is no, then I have another question

Would almost everyone who got a high school diploma in Canada be able to understand that book after reading only a few other books even if they never took any more education after that or read any books they didn't have to read in school?

If the answer to that is yes, then I have another question

What books do they need to read in order to be able to understand that book?

After reading this answer, I think there's a real possibility that the answers to the first and second question are both no and in order to understand that book, I might first have to read so many research results that it takes years to read them. It's also possible that the answer to the first question is yes. It's possible that the author of the book did a really great job of summarizing the research results in a way that people can understand without first having read them.

If the answer to the first or the second question is yes, then I want to read that book because I might think of useful ideas for the world based on it. If that's not the case, I prefer to use my time to read other books that I can understand and have a chance of thinking of useful ideas based on.

Timothy
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  • This can only be answered by understanding your level of education and vocabulary around the concepts discussed in the book. – Solar Mike Jul 20 '19 at 19:51
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    From experience, I'd suggest the only way is to give a quick search and see if you can find a sample chapter. You can usually get a few pages, if incomplete, through Google Books, and usually the better part of a chapter or more from Amazon, etc. you might also borrow it through a local library. Give it a go and decide if it makes sense and you want to read more, or if now is not the time and you might want to read other material first. This works for all books. It can also save you from books that sound good or that people tell you is good, yet they are just not for you at the time. – BrianH Jul 20 '19 at 20:47
  • @BrianH Are you suggesting that I could read through a chapter now because you have the experience that I can learn enough from it or are you suggestion that I should have done that before I asked the question? If it's the first one, I think it could actually be good advice. If it's the second one, I feel that it might be bad advice. Before I asked this question, I did not know that I could actually understand anything if I read a chapter and feel that if I couldn't understand anything, it would be such a waste of time to read a whole chapter before asking this question so it would be better – Timothy Jul 21 '19 at 03:26
  • not to take the risk and just ask this question without first reading a chapter. – Timothy Jul 21 '19 at 03:27

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Would almost everyone who got a high school diploma in Canada be able to understand that book.

We don't comment on specific books or specific individuals. But, there is an easy way to answer this yourself -- go to the Amazon page, click on "Look inside" and then "Surprise me!" Read a few random paragraphs and see if it makes sense.

even if they never took any more education after that or read any books they didn't have to read in school?...I want to read that book because I might think of useful ideas for the world based on it

I don't mean to be condescending, but reading one book will not make you an authority who can develop "useful ideas for the world," even granted that you are smart and have some relevant life experience. There are education professors who have spent their lives thinking about how to improve the educational system, and even they rarely see their ideas accepted and implemented.

cag51
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