Herbert Kohl, one of America's most influential and provocative educators, believes that the only way to persist and to grow as a teacher is to commit oneself to the development of the child rather than to the regimented training of the pupil. His book is a lively, personal testament of one teacher's efforts to cultivate the natural vitality of the learning process; it is also a wondefully concrete and practical guide full of stories of individual students and how they were helped to grow through learning.

He was the first critic of American educational practices to champion the British primary system as a model of reform. This book contains all of Featherstone's ideas on sound educational procedures and the "open-classroom concept" and takes a profound look at our current educational crisis. First he examines the English primary schools, carefully analyzing their informal approach which, he finds, has enabled ordinary teachers working with many different kinds of children to achieve impressive results. He then describes the varieties of sound educational practice schools that are organized learning environments for children finding common threads of freedom, a new conception of the teacher's role, and an implicit understanding that a full childhood is the best preparation for life."

Features: -Some of Featherstone's best-known essays from "The New Republic and his celebrated letter to "Josie, " a young woman entering teaching today.-Ideas that link classroom practice to a social and historical perspective--a one-volume educational foundations course.-Portraits of outstanding K-12 teachers and detailed descriptions of their classroom practices.-Issues beyond the classroom, such as changing definitions of childhood and essential connections between school reform and broader political change.-A critique of the direction of contemporary educational policy.

Transforming Teacher Education offers an intimate, reflective account of the development of the renowned Team One teacher education program at Michigan State University. Over a ten-year period, Team One established a first-rate reputation as a beacon of progressive teacher education. In this book, the creators of Team One describe their ongoing efforts to nurture and sustain a teacher education program that could serve as a learning community for students, faculty, and administrators alike. The book weaves together diverse voices to provide a detailed portrait of the ongoing transformation of teachers and students as they learn together. At a time when traditional teacher education is coming under fire, this book presents a powerful vision of what teacher education could and should be and offers an impassioned rationale for engaging in the intellectually demanding work of professional teacher education.