The challenge to care in schools : an alternative approach to education / Nel Noddings.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Noddings, Nel.

Series:

Advances in contemporary educational thought series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Moral education--United States.

Moral education.

United States.

Teacher-student relationships--United States.

Teacher-student relationships.

Parent and child--United States.

Parent and child.

Physical Description:

xiv, 191 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Teachers College Press, [1992]

Summary:

In The Challenge to Care in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Education, Nel Noddings envisions a school system built on the idea that different people have different strengths, and that these strengths should be cultivated in an environment of caring, not of competition. Traditional liberal education, with its emphases on verbal and mathematical intelligences, and originally based on how people sought to educate the rich, is in Noddings' view elitist and misguided.

This vision may disturb some who cling to the belief that liberal education is the best education for all. But Noddings answers these doubters with more than a strong philosophical argument. She invites the reader into a complex thought experiment: As parents, how would we want our children to be educated if they were a large, heterogeneous group with differing strengths and interests? Noddings offers numerous examples of students--including her own children--who represent these differing strengths, and examines how schools can best serve them.

Chapters address the practical and theoretical questions involved in organizing traditional and nontraditional areas of study around themes of care--within the framework of our current educational system. Themes of care include caring for the self, for the inner circle, for strangers and distant others, for animals, plants, and the Earth, for the human-made world, and for the world of ideas. Introductory chapters focus on caring in general and on the problems of liberal education, while the final chapter offers sound advice on implementing a caring curriculum in our schools.

Contents:

1. Shallow Educational Response to Deep Social Change 1

2. Caring 15

3. Beyond the Disciplines: A Critique of Liberal Education 28

4. An Alternative Vision 44

5. Caring and Continuity 63

6. Caring for Self 74

7. Caring in the Inner Circle 91

8. Caring for Strangers and Distant Others 110

9. Caring for Animals, Plants, and the Earth 126

10. Caring for the Human-Made World 139

11. Caring for Ideas 150

12. Getting Started in Schools 173.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-185) and index.

ISBN:

0807731781

0807731773

OCLC:

25245555