| Physical description |
xiii, 304 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-290) and index. |
| Contents |
1. Education, Socialization, and the Aesthetic -- 2. Democracy and Education -- 3. Learning: The Acquisition of Dispositions -- 4. Educational Method I: The Primacy of the Aesthetic -- 5. Educational Method II: Curiosity -- 6. Educational Method III: Thinking as Problem-Solving and the Role of Groups -- 7. Educational Method IV: Learning Groups, Democracy, and Democratic Schools -- 8. The School System: Its Purpose and Its Persistence -- 9. Targets for Change I: The Testing System and the Conditions of Teaching -- 10. Targets for Change II: Segregated Schools and Education through Work. |
| Summary |
Arnstine shows how schools have been distracted from education by reformers urging higher standards - the code word for higher test scores. But education is revealed in the dispositions a person has: sensitivity and resourcefulness, amiability and responsibility, taste, wit, and a disciplined intelligence. This book examines the conditions needed to foster dispositions like these, for they are not acquired by having the young spend more time studying standard academic subjects in preparation for competitive tests. Without recourse to esoteric jargon, Democracy and the Arts of Schooling shows why test scores are less significant than the quality of the experiences students have in school. When that quality is high - when it has the richness and the absorbing character we associate with the aesthetic - then learning takes place. |
| Subject |
Education -- Aims and objectives -- United States.
|
|
Education -- Social aspects -- United States.
|
|
Educational change -- United States.
|
|
Aesthetics -- Study and teaching.
|
|
Educational tests and measurements -- United States.
|
| ISBN |
0791427218 (alkaline paper) |
|
0791427226 (paperback : alkaline paper) |
|
