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Challenging Assumptions in
Education
by Wendy Priesnitz
 A
fresh and exciting personal approach to the inevitable and urgently
needed revolution in education, which demolishes the
one-size-fits-all, industrialized model of processing and
warehousing students and creates a community-based, individualized
learning society accommodating learners of all ages, interests,
abilities and styles. This book discusses why a
progressively-minded parent might not want to send their child to
school...and what the democratic, life-affirming, academically and
socially beneficial alternative is.
"Our outdated assumptions about
how children learn are crippling both our young people and our
collective well-being. Only by challenging these assumptions will be
able to replace a system that is not relevant to the lives of todays
young people. We must give up on the hierarchical, coercive,
industrial model of education whether it looks like a public school,
a charter school, a private school or a home school because it
impedes learning and enslaves children. Then we need to create
opportunities and infrastructures that respect children, help them
learn, and equip them to meet the immense economic, social and
environmental challenges of this century."
Wendy Priesnitz
About the Author:
Wendy
Priesnitz
is an unschooling pioneer. She and her husband helped their two
daughters learn at home when it was almost unheard of. In 1979, she
founded one of the earliest unschooling support organizations and
continues to share her experience and long-term perspective through
workshops, speeches, articles and books, and consulting to
individuals and governments. She has authored nine other books,
including School Free, a bestselling
homeschool start-up guide and has edited Life Learning: Lessons from
the Educational Frontier, both published by The Alternate Press and
available on this website. She is an award winning journalist and edits
Natural Life magazine.
Author blog
Author Bio
Reviews:
"Challenging Assumptions gives us the ethics and philosophical
reasons to underpin successful homeschooling life. Wendy insists
that the solution to many of the problems facing humanity can be
found by challenging the assumptions about how we treat children.
This isn't a comfortable process, but it's essential...Although
Wendy writes with passion she is never aggressive and thus the book
doesn't slip into the 'us and them' paradigm. This book urges us to
change the way we think, and thus change the world. True to her
grassroots origin, Wendy believes that 'change on the scale that is
required happens one person at a time.' If you have ever doubted
your ability to rear intelligent successful young people at home and
in the community, this book is for you." - Beverley Paine,
Stepping Stones, Australia, 2004
Testimonial:
"This tough-minded book burns sharp holes in dark places! Priesnitz
argues that every school procedure that mutilates children is based
upon some invisible assumption about children and human nature,
which all arise from rational applications of false premises. This
is an eye-opening guide to the most damaging of these hidden
operating principles, which lurk in the nicest of people...perhaps
even in yourself! I heartily recommend this book." - John
Taylor Gatto, author of Dumbing Us Down and The
Underground History of American Education, 2001
The Assumptions
- Education is Something That is Done to You
- Knowledge Belongs to a Cult of Experts
- Others Know Best What Children Should Learn
- Schools Provide Effective Training
- Schools Have a Noble Purpose
Read:
"An excerpt from Challenging
Assumptions in Education.
ISBN 978-0-920118-15-3, softcover, 128 pages, $24.95.
Order
Your Retail Copy Now
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