by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

I'm presently reading the three books listed above. No not all at the same time, but I change between them depending on my mood I guess.

Political Pilgrims; Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China and Cuba 1928-1978 (1981)  and The End of Commitment (2006) are both by famed sociologist Paul Hollander.

While the title of Political Pilgrims gives the theme away, The End of Commitment delves into the "sentiments of former revolutionaries, high-ranking officials, and intellectuals in the Soviet Union as well as in the Soviet bloc countries and in third-world Communist states."

Both are very well written and help one to understand and confirm the biases of so called "progressives".

Finally, with all the interesting debate about education in The Bahamas I've just started Education and Capitalism: How Overcoming Our Fear of Markets and Economics Can Improve America's Schools by Herbert J. Walberg and Joseph L. Bast.

Here's what the famed Dr. Milton Friedman said about the book:

"This is a thoughtful, thorough examination of the virtues of capitalism and free markets as a way to organize elementary and secondary education in a democracy."

I think I'll try to get a copy to the Minster of Education, or even the link above that shares the entire book online.

You think he'll bother to read it and share it with those that "run" education?

I don't think he will either. It will be dismissed out of hand I'm sure.