edited by Joy A. Palmer, 2001
Ideas matter and nowhere is this truer than in education. Since at least the time of the ancient Greeks, people have argued over how children learn and how education should be structured to facilitate their learning. In Plato's view, the disciplined study of formal knowledge is central to the development of a strong and rational mind. Children need to learn what society values and cares deeply about, and it is the job of the teacher to get those ideas across. This was the dominant view of education until the 18th century, when Jean Jacques Rousseau argued in Emile that education is largely an internal process that should be driven by the individual interests of children. For Rousseau, a good teacher allows the natural inclinations of the human individual to unfold and endure through personal discovery and experience. Today, when educators argue about a content-driven model of education versus a student-centered model of education, they are reviving a debate from centuries long ago. Unfortunately for readers of Fifty Modern Thinkers on Education, this volume only presents half of the debate. Fifty Modern Thinkers is the second volume of a two-part collection (by the British publishing firm Routledge) that purports to cover the works of those educational thinkers who have influenced educational thought and practice from the earliest times to the present day. (The first volume covered thinkers from Confucius to Dewey.) The book is a collection of essays written by educators from countries around the world who believe, with Rousseau, that the ultimate purpose of education is more about liberating children's innate wisdom and intelligence than it is about teaching children about the world around them. It does not, however, offer the reader insight into the writings of those who have been critical of this progressive strand of educational theory. The book, for example, describes the works of the little known Nel Noddings and Pierre Bourdieu, but does not mention well-known scholars who have criticized progressive education such as Diane Ravitch or E.D. Hirsch. The fact that Fifty Modern Thinkers on Education takes a one-sided slant on the war-of-ideas in the world of education limits its value for those who are truly interested in understanding how the education world has gotten to where it is. The ISBN is 0-415-22409-8; the publisher is Routledge. Order copies by calling 212-216-7800 or visiting http://www.routledge.com.
