Books by Ron Miller
What Are Schools
For?
Holistic Education in American Culture
|
In What Are Schools For?, Ron Miller demonstrates how holistic education reflects a worldview that is fundamentally different from the cultural sources of modern mainstream schooling. In the first part of the book, he provides a concise account of the historical origins of American public education. Using a broad American Studies perspective that draws on research in social and intellectual history as well as a critical interpretation of educational theory, Miller identifies key cultural themes that have influenced the purpose, structure, and methods of modern educational institutions. He explains, for example, how the modern worldview associated with capitalism and scientific reductionism underlies conventional assumptions about schools, teaching, and learning. Holistic education, as Miller explains it, has philosophical roots in the romantic and Transcendentalist movements of the nineteenth century, but it has developed into a sophisticated postmodern critique of contemporary schooling. What Are Schools For? defines the contributions that various dissident educators have made to the holistic critique, from Pestalozzi and Froebel, to Montessori and Steiner, to progressive, humanistic, and even anarchist educators. This book was the first serious comparative study of these diverse alternative movements. It is a seminal text in the emerging literature of holistic education and has inspired teachers, administrators, and graduate students across the United States. |
Holistic Education Press, Brandon, Vermont 3rd Edition, 1997 https://great-ideas.org/schools.htm |