The Need for Revision : Curriculum, Literature, and the 21st Century

Can we have more teacher/intellectuals in our classrooms? This book demonstrates that we can. But many things have to change before intellectual standards appear again in public schools. David Owen attempts to show, but not in outline form, how we can revise our schools. Can we escape the rut in which public education finds itself, dominated by the inane (tests), the stifling (reduction of school to job training), and the insane (transformation of a life-affirming odyssey of the mind to clichés, information gathering, and slogans)? We can reclaim the beauty of an education if we join David and re-vise our classrooms. Education is uncertain, risky, wonderously adventurous--yet schooling has become stale. No--tediously dreadful. There is a need to revise. Reject standardized tests! Repeal pay for performance! Eject No Child Left Behind before no child has a thoughtful mind left. It is time to revise, and David's book explains why. Are we still interested in the mind, soul, and substance of the individual? Does it matter who we are and become, or just what we do? If these questions still matter, dwell carefully with David's ideas and transform yourself, your students, school, community, state, nation, and world. It is time to revise them all. John A. Weaver, Georgia Southern University Front Matter....Pages i-xi For | Word....Pages 1-24 Each Morning is A Gift....Pages 25-43 Singing the Song of the Open Road....Pages 45-58 Asking Big Questions in Small Spaces....Pages 59-72 The Story is the South....Pages 73-87 The Useless Studying the Useless....Pages 89-104 Living Beyond....Pages 105-120 Time for Some Feedback....Pages 121-135 Ill Communication....Pages 137-151 The Word is Dead; Long Live the Word....Pages 153-167 Back Matter....Pages 169-178