Starting Strong: A Different Look at Children, School, and Standards (Practitioner Inquiry Series)

In an elegant affirmation of human capacity and creativity, Patricia Carini counters high-stakes testing, the pathologizing of children, and the unrelenting critique of the public schools with a persuasive account of how children, all children, actively make sense of the world and their experience through the making of works such as drawings, constructions, and writings. This engaging and vivid account of the day-to-day possibilities of learning and teaching, and ultimately the remaking of the schools, is indispensable reading for anyone called to teach or committed to a liberating education for all children.

Patricia F. Carini is a co-founder of the Prospect School and the Prospect Archive and Center for Education and Research in North Bennington, Vermont.