Dr Cosgrove's book is one that you will want to share with others. This is an enjoyable, funny, satirical novel with a serious social commentary. Many of the characters and situations are instantly recognisable from my forty years of educational experience but it carries a message wider than the context of education. Beneath the antics of the seemingly mad Dr Erfert is the questions it raises about the awareness of mental health issues within schools and other areas of society.""- PF Lupton BA, Dip.RE., Retired teacher. DescriptionThis book is meant to be a satirical novel based on the author's forty years of experience in teacher training and inspection. Its fundamental principle is that much of what goes on in education is so bizarre as to be like the old story of the emperor's new clothes. There is an elaborate game played by two sets of players. Some genuinely believe in the absurdities and some see through them but it is not in their interest to break rank. So long as everyone plays by the rules of this silly game the emperor has clothes. But when one young Yorkshireman of sturdy common sense tries to make people believe that much of what goes on is nonsense he comes up against both sets of protagonists. The novel is partly a story of how he is defeated by the system and ultimately has to accept and embrace it. Many of the things John Cosgrove recounts in this novel have actually happened but they are wrapped around the bizarre antics of a 'mad' principal. The serious question on which the reader must decide for him or herself is whether Dr Erfert is mad or whether the madness lies in the society that tolerates and promotes him and other so-called educational experts. This is an interesting and thought provoking novel which raises questions for the whole of society. About the AuthorDr John Cosgrove, BA, MA, MEd, PhD, DASE, PGCE, CELTA has forty years experience of the education system working in a variety of fields from schools to universities. He has been involved with teacher training for over thirty years and has held senior positions in the university sector including that of Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Reading University. He has been the chief external examiner at Reading University for teacher-training courses. He has been on the Rochdale Education Committee and its successors for over 20 years and has held the chairmanship or vice-chairmanship of four governing bodies as well as of many university level committees. He is particularly well known for his contribution to Catholic education mainly in the Salford Diocese and was once invited to be an occasional historical consultant to a congregation in Rome. He has taken part in 80 OFSTED inspections specialising in History, Religious Education and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural aspects. He has written academic theses and has had a few articles accepted by newspapers (Times Educational Supplement) or journals (The Month) but this is his first novel. He has a children's novel based on the Civil War, almost ready and has ideas for more work on Dr Erfert's career as the emperor of education. He also has a plan for a non-fiction academic book on the principles of history teaching for student teachers and for teachers having an OFSTED inspection. He has now retired from full time work.
Between 1989 and 1999 half the teachers in England and Wales quit their posts. By the late nineties more than six thousand teachers a year were retiring early on grounds of ill health. In recent years hardly a school in the country has not lost at least one teacher because of a 'nervous breakdown'. Breakdown looks at what is happening in teaching today. Why breakdowns have become so common, what it means to suffer a breakdown, and the consequences of this epidemic for schools and children. It suggests what teachers can do to help themselves, what schools should do to help their staff and the ways in which the local authorities can offer practical support.
This book covers the wide spectrum of subjects relating to obtaining and using building stones, starting with their geological origin and then describing the nature of granites, volcanics, limestones, sandstones, flint, metamorphic stones, breccias and conglomerates, with emphasis being placed on how to recognise the different stones via the many illustrated examples from Great Britain and other countries. The life of a building stone is explained from its origin in the quarry, through its exposure to the elements when used for a building, to its eventual deterioration. The structure of stone buildings is then discussed, with explanations of the mechanics of pillars, lighthouses and walls, arches, bridges, buttresses and roof vaults, plus castles and cathedrals. The sequence of the historical architectural styles of stone buildings is explained—from the early days through to postmodern buildings. Special attention is paid to two famous architects: the Roman Vitruvius and the English Sir Christopher Wren who designed and supervised the construction of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. To demonstrate many of the concepts presented, two exemplary stone buildings are described in detail: the Albert Memorial in London and Durham Cathedral in northern England. The former building is interesting because it is comprised of a cornucopia of different building stones and the latter building because of its architecture and sandstone decay mechanisms. In the final Chapter, ruined stone buildings are discussed—the many reasons for their decay and the possibility of their ‘rebirth’ via digital recording of their geometry. The book has over 350 pages and is illustrated with more than 450 diagrams and colour photographs of both the various stones and the associated stone buildings. Readers’ knowledge of the subject will be greatly enhanced by these images and the related explanatory text. A wide-ranging references and bibliography section is also included.
Dr. Susan Cosgrove Pritchard is suddenly and unexpectedly forced to choose between the surgical career she loves, and taking over as CEO of Biorel, Inc., the company she inherited upon her father's death. Buried among his private papers, she discovers her father's formula for a potentially successful cancer treatment discredited 29 years ago by powerful forces, which saw it as a threat to their lucrative conventional treatments. Torn between her passion for her medical career versus her determination to save the life of her ten-year-old patient after surgery failed to, Susan reluctantly abandons her career and asserts herself as CEO of Biorel, in order to resurrect her father's formula as a last resort to save her patient. She finds the journey from operating room to boardroom strewn with obstacles. Hampered from within by subversive attempts to undermine her authority, and confronted externally by the same conspiracy that destroyed her father's reputation, Susan fights to get the treatment approved by the FDA. Her preoccupation with the tasks at hand allow her to temporarily put aside, but never completely suppress, the resentment she feels toward her mother, who abandoned her to be raised by her father, and the guilt she feels for not having been there when her father died. When Susan's mother shows up unannounced seeking forgiveness, Susan is once again confronted with a difficult choice. John Chaplick is the author of The Pandora Files. Originally from Saugus, Massachusetts, he now lives in Tampa, Florida. Publisher's Web site: http: //www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/AnEnduringConspiracy.htm
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.