Loving Learning: How Progressive Education Can Save America’s Schools

Educator Little and Ellison (Buzz) provide a rich overview of the history and methods of the largely abandoned progressive education model, as well as an optimistic vision for its future. Prior to his death in April 2014, Little, a practitioner and advocate for progressive education since 1976 who served as head of school at Park Day School in Oakland, Calif., conducted a tour of 45 progressive schools, which, blended with his own experience, provide the basis for this book. At the heart of the argument is the idea that children will love learning, if teachers recognize and respond to their individual interests. The authors eloquently present the progressive principle of integrated, student-centered learning with examples gleaned from Little’s national tour of progressive schools. Linking current models with the historical underpinnings of progressive education, while openly illuminating the pitfalls and failures of the movement, Little and Ellison provide a comprehensive primer for how and why student-centered learning, combined with dedicated and thorough teaching methods, can create avid and successful learners. [em]Agent: Bonnie Nadell, Hill Nadell Literary Agency. (Mar.) [/em]