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combimagnetron's review against another edition
3.0
Very readable and a decent overview of what some of some anarchist viewpoints and some real-world examples of anarchist education.
I started to read, though, expecting this book to come to some conclusion on what an anarchist philosophy of education could look like. But in the end I feel like it primarily makes an argument for the value of the anarchist perspective besides a liberal and marxist perspective. Which is interesting, but not really what the book seemed to suggest as far as I'm concerned.
I started to read, though, expecting this book to come to some conclusion on what an anarchist philosophy of education could look like. But in the end I feel like it primarily makes an argument for the value of the anarchist perspective besides a liberal and marxist perspective. Which is interesting, but not really what the book seemed to suggest as far as I'm concerned.
jone_d's review
4.0
It turns out that the woman who founded the preschool that I went to, that my step mom and my dad taught at, attended the Ferrer Modern School at Stelton. My step mom recently loaned me a book that Sue Riley, who started the preschool that I went to, wrote called: How to Generate Values in Young Children. Since reading the forward for that book, I've gotten really interested in the Modern School movement.
I found this book really interesting. It was the most I had read about anarchist philosophy in a very long time. It clarified a lot of my understanding of how anarchist thinking might apply to education and pushed me to think about philosophy of education more generally.
It turns out that, at least according to the author I am a little bit more optimistic in my view of human nature, than what Suissa refers to as the 'social anarchists' and have an educational philosophy that is closer to libertarian than anarchist. I'm a little embarrassed about the later, but also relieved... I always worried I was a little bit of an authoritarian around education.
The challenge that Suissa took on was evident as she attempted to draw out a coherent educational philosophy from dispirit anarchist thinkers who had never set out a philosophy of education per say. I am not convinced that she has a anarchist philosophy of education nailed down, but that doesn't bother me. By the middle of the book I certainly agreed that considering an anarchist philosophy of education was valuable simply to gain a better sense of the possibilities of education philosophy more generally.
While none of this was very useful to me as a child care provider in an immediate practical way, it was actually very useful for me in thinking more long term about the trade I am in and how it might possible fit into a vision of a different society.
I think my biggest disappointment was that the author did not provide more back ground on Marxist education philosophy and explain an anarchist philosophy of education by contrast. I feel she did a great job explaining the relationship between liberal (i.e. mainstream) education philosophy and a possible anarchist philosophy of education. Most clear to me at the close of the book was the problem in current mainstream education philosophy is not being able to hope... hope for a better world for students, and instead replacing hope or vision with equal opportunity. I understand that a clear way that anarchist and Marxist education philosophy would differ is that anarchist philosophy asks one to act on this hope or vision in a prefigurative way, where a Marxist philosophy would dismiss this as a possibility, but I missed having more information and analysis about Marxist education.
Finally, one of the things I found most interesting, as I had never really read about education philosophy generally, was thinking about how far away the current 'education reform movement' (ala waiting for superman, the Gates Foundation, and Sec. Duncan)is from liberal (mainstream) education philosophy. Is there a philosophy of education that is behind this movement, or is it a philosophy of management or business?
I found this book really interesting. It was the most I had read about anarchist philosophy in a very long time. It clarified a lot of my understanding of how anarchist thinking might apply to education and pushed me to think about philosophy of education more generally.
It turns out that, at least according to the author I am a little bit more optimistic in my view of human nature, than what Suissa refers to as the 'social anarchists' and have an educational philosophy that is closer to libertarian than anarchist. I'm a little embarrassed about the later, but also relieved... I always worried I was a little bit of an authoritarian around education.
The challenge that Suissa took on was evident as she attempted to draw out a coherent educational philosophy from dispirit anarchist thinkers who had never set out a philosophy of education per say. I am not convinced that she has a anarchist philosophy of education nailed down, but that doesn't bother me. By the middle of the book I certainly agreed that considering an anarchist philosophy of education was valuable simply to gain a better sense of the possibilities of education philosophy more generally.
While none of this was very useful to me as a child care provider in an immediate practical way, it was actually very useful for me in thinking more long term about the trade I am in and how it might possible fit into a vision of a different society.
I think my biggest disappointment was that the author did not provide more back ground on Marxist education philosophy and explain an anarchist philosophy of education by contrast. I feel she did a great job explaining the relationship between liberal (i.e. mainstream) education philosophy and a possible anarchist philosophy of education. Most clear to me at the close of the book was the problem in current mainstream education philosophy is not being able to hope... hope for a better world for students, and instead replacing hope or vision with equal opportunity. I understand that a clear way that anarchist and Marxist education philosophy would differ is that anarchist philosophy asks one to act on this hope or vision in a prefigurative way, where a Marxist philosophy would dismiss this as a possibility, but I missed having more information and analysis about Marxist education.
Finally, one of the things I found most interesting, as I had never really read about education philosophy generally, was thinking about how far away the current 'education reform movement' (ala waiting for superman, the Gates Foundation, and Sec. Duncan)is from liberal (mainstream) education philosophy. Is there a philosophy of education that is behind this movement, or is it a philosophy of management or business?
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