Loving Learning: How Progressive Education Can Save America's Schools

by Tom Little, Katherine Ellison, Ayelet Waldman (Foreword by)

Overview

Noted educator Tom Little and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Katherine Ellison reveal the home-grown solution to turning American students into life-long learners.

The longtime head of Park Day School, Tom Little embarked on a tour of 43 progressive schools across the country. In this book, his life’s work, he interweaves his teaching experience, the knowledge he gleaned from his trip, and the history of Progressive Education. As Little and Katherine Ellison reveal, these educators and schools invigorate learning and promote inquisitiveness by allowing the curriculum to grow organically out of children's questions—whether they lead to studying the senses, working on a farm, or re-creating a desert ecosystem in the classroom.

We see curious students draw on information across disciplines to think in imaginative yet practical ways, like in a "Mini-Maker Faire" or designing and building a chair from scratch. Becoming good citizens was another of Little's goals. He believed in the need for students to learn how to become advocates for themselves, from setting rules on the playground to engaging in issues of social justice in the wider community.

Using the philosophy of Progressive Education, schools can prepare students to shape a vibrant future in the arts and sciences for themselves and the nation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393246162
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	03/02/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Tom Little served as head of Oakland, California's Park Day School for twenty-seven years. A national leader in Progressive Education, he cofounded the Progressive Education Network. He died in 2014 from cancer shortly after writing this book.

Katherine Ellison is a Pulitzer Prize–winning former foreign correspondent and the author of seven books, including The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes You Smarter and Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention. She lives in northern California.

Table of Contents

Foreword Ayelet Waldman 9

Introduction: Meet Me at Park Day 15

1 "Remakers of Mankind" 32

2 The Rug: Teaching to the "Whole Child" 54

3 The Inner Ear: Learning That Ignites Children's Senses 70

4 The Magic Circle: Building Character and Community 91

5 The Storyboard: The Progressive Heart of High Technology 112

6 Tasting the Soup: Recipes to Calm a "Testing Mania" 129

7 The Laboratory: Messiness and Failure-Progressive Educations Vulnerability and Strength 149

8 The Petition: Promoting Social Justice 165

Conclusion: Back to the Future 188

Epilogue 204

Appendix

Progressive Education Association: Seven Founding Principles 207

A List of Schools Using Progressive Education Methods 209

A (Somewhat Idiosyncratic) Top-Ten List of Books, Studies, and Articles Supporting the Benefits of Progressive Education 216

Park Day School's Sixth-Graders' Poem to Tom Little 217

Notes 219

Bibliography 231

Acknowledgments 233

Index 237

Editorial Reviews

01/12/2015
Educator Little and Ellison (Buzz) provide a rich overview of the history and methods of the largely abandoned progressive education model, as well as an optimistic vision for its future. Prior to his death in April 2014, Little, a practitioner and advocate for progressive education since 1976 who served as head of school at Park Day School in Oakland, Calif., conducted a tour of 45 progressive schools, which, blended with his own experience, provide the basis for this book. At the heart of the argument is the idea that children will love learning, if teachers recognize and respond to their individual interests. The authors eloquently present the progressive principle of integrated, student-centered learning with examples gleaned from Little’s national tour of progressive schools. Linking current models with the historical underpinnings of progressive education, while openly illuminating the pitfalls and failures of the movement, Little and Ellison provide a comprehensive primer for how and why student-centered learning, combined with dedicated and thorough teaching methods, can create avid and successful learners. Agent: Bonnie Nadell, Hill Nadell Literary Agency. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Tom Little is a visionary champion of progressive education at a time when American children are more in need of its enlightened methods than ever. His book is provocative, educational, and full of wisdom and heart."

Deborah Meier

02/01/2015
With decades of experience at California's Park Day School, which uses progressive techniques to combat many of the problems, including dropouts and bullying, found in traditional public schools, Little (1953–2014) here shares his firsthand experience with coauthor Ellison (The Mommy Brain). What began as an experiment is now a thriving community of parents, students, and teachers engaged in education designed to stimulate a love of learning, strengthen character, and elicit curiosity. Progressive education, as espoused by John Dewey, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and Maria Montessori, among others, is often discounted as too flimsy an approach. However, Little shows that these occasionally misunderstood theories are vibrant and provide a strong foundation for learning. Highlighting some of the basic principles of progressive education, including a focus on the whole child and sensory learning, Little displays though historical connections and modern examples the effectiveness of progressive schools. While the book is short on practical applications, its visionary links between theory and practice are empowering and will be engaging to readers who want to learn more about how these schools get things done. VERDICT For educators who are interested in understanding progressive instruction and how it might be used to solve today's educational dilemmas.—Rachel Wadham, Brigham Young Univ. Libs., Provo, UT

Library Journal

2014-12-13
One of the leaders of the progressive education movement reflects on ways to improve more than just standardized test scores. The urgency of this book comes from two directions. The first, most obvious direction is the need for change in our American education system; every semester brings more news of disinterested students and harried teachers struggling to make a difference while guarding their backs against the threat of termination if the test scores don't add up. The second direction is Little's personal fight; diagnosed with bone cancer in the summer of 2013, he felt a new urgency to finish writing what he'd learned. The author died earlier this year, leaving behind his legacy of work at Park Day School in California and in this book, which examines successes and challenges at that school and many others like it. Little traveled around the country, visiting "progressive schools," a loose moniker for schools that structure lessons and the direction of learning based on where the interests of the students take them. Emphasizing critical thinking, open communication and collaboration, and hands-on learning, the model works to prepare students to leave school capable of self-directed learning. With the assistance of Pulitzer Prize winner Ellison, Little explores the different movements forming to protest the government-driven "testing mania," noting that corporate interests have lobbied furiously to convince legislators that using standardized tests to measure student achievement and teacher efficacy has in fact hampered both. Little also writes about the accountability and rigor that critics claim progressive schools lack. When we talk about the ways children learn, it is accepted wisdom that different people learn in different ways, but with standardized testing, we're looking at one small piece of their educations and extrapolating too far. Little's enthusiasm and passion for the potential of progressive schools burn on every page and offer hope for a better way forward.

Kirkus Reviews