Reimagining the classroom:
Book Summary: Ours is a world in crisis and transition, which offers us an opportunity to rethink how and why we do what we do. It’s a chance to reimagine how we live as human beings in community, and to begin with the cohort with the most to offer: our children. For educators, this is the time to reimagine every aspect of the classroom and school day and to ask profound questions. Why do schools focus on training our children in skills and knowledge that may soon be obsolete? How can we address the anxiety and depression in our children is its own epidemic? What is the purpose of an education anyway?
Theodore Richards’s provocative book asks us to reconsider some of our basic assumptions about the world, our relationship to it, and our relationships with each other. It helps educators question and recast these assumptions and practices in order to consider how an educated person might not merely attain personal success but find a deeper flourishing and create a better world. And it provides practical steps and examples parents and educators can use to begin to create new learning spaces, approaches, and outcomes.
Ultimately, Dr. Richards suggests that it is not merely the educational content that matters. Rather, we teach most profoundly by creating a space that serves as a metaphor for the world – a metaphor through which our values are expressed. A critical look at our education reveals how impoverished our lives – and the lives of our children – have become: We are educating our children to think of themselves as mere consumers rather than creators, to beware of the world rather than behold it, to think of themselves as isolated individuals rather than participants in communities and in the broader web of life.
But our children are a pathway to reimagining our world. This is done not by telling our children what to think, but through a process of shared inquiry and exploration rooted in a renewed emphasis on our relationship to one another and the planet. This book explains why, and demonstrates how.