Getting It Wrong from the Beginning: Our Progressivist Inheritance from Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget

Kieran Egan

ISBN 10: 030010510X / ISBN 13: 9780300105100

Published by Yale University Press, 2004

About this Item

One of the most highly regarded educational theorists explains that the ideas upon which American public education was founded, and which continue to dominate educational thinking, are wrong. Num Pages: 218 pages, black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: JNA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 209 x 138 x 15. Weight in Grams: 254. . 2004. Paperback. . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9780300105100

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Getting It Wrong from the Beginning: Our Progressivist Inheritance from Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 030010510X
• ISBN 13: 9780300105100
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The ideas upon which public education was founded in the last half of the nineteenth century were wrong. And despite their continued dominance in educational thinking for a century and a half, these ideas are no more right today. So argues one of the most original and highly regarded educational theorists of our time in Getting It Wrong from the Beginning. Kieran Egan explains how we have come to take mistaken concepts about education for granted and why this dooms our attempts at educational reform.

Egan traces the nineteenth-century sources of Progressive thinking about education and their persistence even now. He diagnoses the problem with our schools in a radically different way, and likewise prescribes novel alternatives to present educational practice. His book is both persuasive and full of promise―a book that belongs on the must-read list for anyone who cares about the success of our schools. 

About the Author

Kieran Egan is professor of education at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. A recipient of the Grawemeyer Award in Education, he is also author of the best-selling book The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding and many other books and articles about education.