Reschooling: Leah McLaren and flap copy

I think most people assume flap copy isn’t necessarily the author’s writing. While it can include author input, it could also be an editor, copywriter, publicist or some combination thereof.  Flap copy is a particular animal, and wouldn’t spring to mind as the first choice for an example of the ‘author’s voice’.  Plus, if you want readers to believe you’d actually read a particular book, you might crack it open and select an exemplary sentence or two from the interior, rather than the promo blurb from Amazon.

Here’s Leah McLaren, this Leah McLaren, on unschooling in the Globe and Mail:

In his recent book, Free To Learn, Peter Gray, a psychology professor at Boston College, argues that “children come into this world burning to learn, equipped with the curiosity, playfulness, and sociability to direct their own education. Yet we have squelched such instincts in a school model originally developed to indoctrinate, not to promote intellectual growth.”

And here’s the promo blurb on Amazon:

In Free to Learn, developmental psychologist Peter Gray argues that…Children come into this world burning to learn, equipped with the curiosity, playfulness, and sociability to direct their own education. Yet we have squelched such instincts in a school model originally developed to indoctrinate, not to promote intellectual growth.

The selected bits appear in quotes in McLaren’s piece, suggesting they’re written by Gray and come from the body of his book.  No quotes surround the same selection in the blurb. 

Here it is again on Boing Boing - along with an excerpt which includes a sentence beginning, “Children come into this world burning to learn…”, though in the actual excerpt (reproduced below the advertisement), the remainder of the sentence is different.

Is it unreasonable to expect a highly paid columnist in a paper like The Globe to choose a passage that demonstrates they’ve read a book - rather than the promo text?

The Globe’s standards

In case anyone missed it, there’s been some discussion about standards at the Globe and Mail recently in regard to Margaret Wente.

Someone sent this in, and I wondered if I was missing something, but apparently not.  It appears the Globe’s Leah McLaren is using column inches in ‘Canada’s newspaper of record’ to sell her house.

At the risk of sounding "obsessive" for even bringing this up, it reminds a bit of Margaret Wente’s "Great Big Bike Adventure".  Here’s a bit of how that appears in the Globe:

Butterfield & Robinson knows that, these days, luxury is a commodity. Anyone with money can stay in a fancy hotel or eat at a restaurant with starched linen. But not everyone can eat at Signor Bindi’s. So B&R offers experiences you can’t get on your own. In Siena – one of the most exquisite cities in the world – Giorgio took us to meet the Countess, who has a palace on the main square, where they hold the famous horse race called the Palio. The Countess was ageless, gracious and impeccably coiffed. She shook all our hands. Her daughter-in-law gave us a tour of the 18th-century rooms and the priceless Old Masters, and then we sipped prosecco. It’s rumoured that she rents out her windows for $5,000 apiece during the Palio. The ancient cathedral in Siena is astounding, but the Countess was equally impressive.

Experiences like this do not come cheap. The Tuscany trip is one of B&R’s signature tours, and the price is as breathtaking as the Tuscan hills. I long wondered what you got for it, and now I know. It’s not in my nature to gush, but this trip really is all that: luxury, scenery, pecorino cheese, ancient cities, Tuscan birdsong, the wisdom of Giorgio, and the thrill of mastering that hill (even on an e-bike). Plus glorious downhills that go on and on forever. Pure bliss.

Butterfield & Robinson offers e-bikes on request for many European trips. The five-night Tuscany biking trip departs and ends in Florence, is offered in both spring and fall and costs $5,495 (U.S.) a person. 1-866-551-9090; Butterfield.com