«Reading 'Ordinary Lessons' was sheer pleasure. In fact, this collection of memoirs of girlhood in the 1950s contains so many pure gems that as soon as I finished the book, I turned back to page one and began again. But although 'Ordinary Lessons' is a book that every woman - and many men - will savor, it is a lot more than a good read. It is an important historical document. Susan Franzosa's excellent introductory chapter and the eleven memoirs that follow contribute to our growing knowledge of the way gender was constructed in the mid-twentieth century. They also explode the myth of homogeneity about the 1950s. Who would have thought that growing up white and female in the United States in the 1950s could mean so many different things? On the other hand, why did any of us ever suppose that a girl's life on a Minnesota farm and in suburban Connecticut would be alike? That girlhood in Appalachia would resemble a girlhood in a northern village whose heart and soul were working class? One of the many important lessons 'Ordinary Lessons' teaches is that we should have known better.» (Jane Roland Martin, Professor of Philosophy Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Boston)«In Franzosa's striking collection of memoirs, eleven women write insightfully about their girlhoods and the ordinary lessons they learned in their families that helped them to resist the slots reserved for them by the mores of their times. Franzosa's excellent introduction, both fluid and compelling, reviews the myths, factors, and influences relevant to women's lives in the 1950s. The stories of these white middle-class educators provide a benchmark for any other group looking at their younger selves and a spur for young women seeking to become their best selves. Lively and utterly readable, 'Ordinary Lessons' belongs in secondary schools, colleges, and universities, but should also have wide appeal to the general reader.» (Liz Whaley, coauthor, with Liz Dodge, of 'Weaving in the Women: Transforming the High School English Curriculum')«Something wonderful happens when conventional categories are broken: suddenly, new dimensions of reality are revealed. This is what Susan Franzosa brings about in her collection of essays, all of them childhood memories focused on the 1950s. The writers are women, mostly middle class and white and what are falsely called 'mainstream'. They have grown up to be academics, intellectuals, critical thinkers - something few could have expected when they were young. They speak vividly about family love and family tension; they recall books and spurts of curiosity or wonder; they tell their stories variously and unsentimentally. In their diversity and distinctiveness they invalidate the term 'ordinary'. Different though they are in setting and geography, they somehow weave webs of connectedness as they write about what it has meant to choose themselves in a not always hospitable world. And as they do, the stereotypical image of the 1950s seems to be forever changed.» (Maxine Greene, Professor Emeritus, Teachers College, Columbia University)
