Fayette County Superintendent Manny Caulk has launched a book club to help make education the center of public discourse, engage the community in critical conversations and support development of a community of readers. It starts with “The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way” by Amanda Ripley, a former Time magazine reporter who chronicled the experiences of three teenagers attending school in some of the world’s top-performing education systems.

Two community book club meetings are scheduled for March in Lexington. Multiple copies of the book are available at the Lexington Public Library. Every school library also has three copies for staff and students to check out.

Two classes at Henry Clay High School and four at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School are reading the book. These students plan to Skype with the author on March 25.