What Are We Trying to Teach Them Anyway?: A Father's Focus on School Reform

A parent takes on the education system in an insightful exploration of our society's basic assumptions about the role of education

As a parent and as a self-described victim of his own education, the author of this manifesto has a personal stake in the thorny issue of school reform. When he became concerned about the difficulties experienced by his children in the Colorado public school system, Pierce recalled the dull, pedestrian teaching methods that stifled his own early learning pleasures. He argues here that schools traditionally cater to the needs of teachers, not those of children, and calls for schools to serve as "truly humane and nurturing" institutions guided by "a vision that looks beyond the child's cognitive needs to his needs as a human being." Pierce, a marketing consultant, cites one alternative school, the Jefferson County Open School in Denver, to demonstrate that a "child-centered" program can operate within the public system. However, he bolsters his observations with little other research and his prescriptions are frequently vague.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.