GREENE, Lawrence J. 1943-

PERSONAL:

Born February 3, 1943, in New York, NY; son of Harold and Adelaide (Gelbstein) Greene. Education: Antioch College, B.A., 1965; Stanford University, M.A., 1967.

ADDRESSES:

Home—1031 Foster City Blvd., Foster City, CA 94404. Office—Developmental Learning Center, 12301 Radoyka Dr., Saratoga, CA 95070.

CAREER:

Developmental Learning Center, Saratoga, CA, executive director, 1969—. Instructor at San Jose State University.

WRITINGS:

Kids Who Hate School, Humanics, 1983, revised edition published as Learning Disabilities and Your Child: A Survival Handbook, Fawcett Columbine (New York, NY), 1987.

(With Leigh Jones-Bamman) Getting Smarter, Pitman, 1984.

Kids Who Underachieve, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1986.

Smarter Kids, Body Press (Tucson, AZ), 1987.

1001 Ways to Improve Your Child's Schoolwork: An Easy-to-Use Reference Book of Common School Problems and Practical Solutions, Dell (New York, NY), 1991; revised edition published as Improving Your Child's Schoolwork: 1,001 Ideas Arranged From A to Z, Prima (Rocklin, CA), 1996.

Study Smarter, Think Smarter: A Ready-to-Use Study Skills Program for Grades 4-8, Center for Applied Research in Education (West Nyack, NY), 1993.

The Life-Smart Kid: Teaching Your Child to Use Good Judgment in Every Situation, Prima (Rocklin, CA), 1995.

Finding Help When Your Child Is Struggling in School, Golden Books (New York, NY), 1998.

What Every Parent Should Know About Learning Difficulties: A Comprehensive Guide to Over 70 Conditions, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Roadblocks to Learning: Understanding the Obstacles That Can Sabotage Your Child's Academic Success, Warner (New York, NY), 2002.

Winning the Study Game: Learning How to Succeed in School—Reproducible Edition, Peytral, 2002.

Winning the Study Game: Learning How to Succeed in School—Consumable Student Edition, Peytral, 2002.

Winning the Study Game: Resource Specialist Guide—Grades 6-11, Peytral, 2002.

Study Wise: A Program for Maximizing Your Learning Potential, Prentice-Hall (Upper Saddle River, NJ), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Lawrence J. Greene has had over thirty years of experience in special education, and he has written several books to help parents cope with the needs of children with learning disabilities. His titles include Learning Disabilities and Your Child: A Survival Handbook, which gives information on how to diagnose learning disabilities and how to choose the proper learning setting for individual children. He is also the author of The Life-Smart Kid: Teaching Your Child to Use Good Judgement in Every Situation, which addresses issues outside of education—i.e., peer pressure, drug abuse, and sexually transmitted diseases. Greene's 2002 effort Roadblocks to Learning: Understanding the Obstacles That Can Sabotage Your Child's Academic Success met with praise from Mark Bay in Library Journal, who predicted, "This book will be extremely useful in public libraries." Similarly, Booklist's Vanessa Bush declared Roadblocks to Learning to be "a helpful resource for parents."

Greene told CA: "My clinical experience has been primarily with subtle to moderately learning-disabled children of average to superior intelligence. Despite their intelligence, many of the children who are referred to me by teachers, physicians, and psychologists have difficulty managing learning tasks considered average for their age. Although some of these children have specific learning problems, many have non-specific, nebulous, and/or intermittent learning deficits. These deficits may involve emotional components and/or family problems. In many instances, no single source can be identified.

"I define underachievement as a condition in which a child of average to superior potential is functioning below the level of his potential, for whatever reason. A child may do 'well' in school and still be an underachiever. For example, a child with an IQ of 142 may receive 'B's' on his report card. A 'B' is a is very respectable grade. But the grade may represent work which is below the child's potential level of performance. Many of the children I work with attend private schools with highly accelerated curricula and stiff entrance requirements. These children may have superior IQ's and may test above grade level on standardized test and, yet, perform marginally in class. I consider such children to be underachievers.

"The issue of grades raises several philosophical questions. For instance, is there something intrinsically better about a grade of 'A' versus a grade of 'B'? Is the student who is not grade-oriented less actualized than the one who might be compulsive about grades? What about obsessive parents who attempt to impose their own obsessions on their children? Clearly, I cannot answer such issues here. Suffice it to say that I believe an achievement orientation is basically far more psychologically healthy for a child than a non-achievement or an under-achievement orientation.

"Our present system of education can be faulted for not providing assistance for a vast population of children who are not actualizing their potential. Federally funded Title I programs are designed for the educationally disadvantaged, but many middle-class schools do not offer Title I programs. And many underachievers are clearly not educationally disadvantaged. Most schools are having a difficult enough time simply providing for the classically learning-disabled student. These schools often choose to disregard the plight of the underachiever.

"Underachieving children represent a tragic waste of human resources. Once a child accepts himself as being inferior or mediocre, the die is cast. All I can do as an educator is sound the alarm and hope that someone is listening. I do this by writing books for parents, professionals, and kids (as in my book Getting Smarter).

"The solution to the problem of underachievement is better educated teachers and better parents. Underachieving children have unique academic and emotional needs. Parents and teachers must be taught how to identify and how to meet these needs. Hopefully, my work and my books are contributing to this educational process."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 2002, Vanessa Bush, review of Roadblocks to Learning: Understanding the Obstacles That Can Sabotage Your Child's Academic Success, p. 1807.

Library Journal, September 1, 2002, Mark Bay, review of Roadblocks to Learning, p. 189.

San Francisco Chronicle, September 12, 1983.*