Freedom to Learn

This is the text that championed a revolutionary approach to education that changed the way we teach our children. Now, in the Third Edition, its challenging the status quo with twenty years of evidence that defies current thinking. Five exciting new chapters focus on issues of importance now and in the future - learning from children who love school; researching person-centered issues in education; developing the administrators role as a facilitator; building discipline and classroom management with the learner; and person-centered views of transforming schools. Freedom to Learn, Third Edition is written in the first person, with two goals in mind - to aid the development of the minds of children and young persons, and to encourage the kinds of adventurous enterprises being carried out daily by dedicated, caring teachers in creative classrooms and supportive schools throughout the nation. *Use of a first-person narrative-a technique pioneered by Carl Rogers in the first edition of Freedom to Learn-personalizes text coverage, and gives prospective teachers a real feel of communicating with an expert about what is really needed in the classroom. *Case studies and interviews illuminate Rogers ideas from the perspective of teachers, administrators, and students who are actually there, and have experienced the exciting results of person-centered education first hand. *A unique section, Resources for Change: A Learning Community, provides a network of sources all teachers can turn to for ideas to use in improving the learning environment in their classrooms and schools. *A new co-author, H. Jerome Freiberg, a contributor to the prior edition of Freedom to Learn, adds new insights through case examples, current research, and twenty years of practice...making the challenge of creating person-centered learning environments exciting and inspiring for a whole new generation of teachers. *A new chapter, Why Kids Love School, directs student attention to the aspects of schooling that children do enjoy, and look forward to...so that teachers can learn how to incorporate more of the types of activities that encourage learning, and cause children to want to come to school. *A new chapter on discipline addresses an area many teachers cite as a strong barrier to the creation of a person-centered classroom. Coverage focuses on cooperative learning and creating caring environments that give children a variety of ways to achieve. Case examples are included. *A new chapter on transforming education delineates exactly what structural changes need to be implemented in classrooms and schools in order for person-centered learning to occur. *A new chapter, Administrators as Facilitators looks at the role of the administrator in fostering school change, at the system, school, and classroom level. *A new chapter on person-centered issues in education introduces new research that examines person-centered learning environments. *A new appendix, Resources for Change: A Learning Community, provides a list of programs and contact people for help in extending the ideas presented in the text.

Table of Contents:
DIFFICULTIES AND OPPORTUNITIES. 1. The Challenge of Present-Day Teaching. 2. Why Do Kids Love School? 3. As a Teacher, Can I Be Myself? Responsible Freedom in the Classroom. 4. A Sixth-Grade Teacher Experiments. 5. A French Teacher Grows with Her Students. 6. Administrators as Facilitators. 7. Other Facilitators of Freedom. For the Teacher. 8. The Interpersonal Relationship in the Facilitation of Learning. 9. Becoming a Facilitator. 10. Ways of Building Freedom. 11. The Politics of Education. 12. Is There Discipline in Person-Centered Classrooms? What Are the Facts? 13. Researching Person-Centered Issues in Education. The Philosophical and Value Ramification. 14. A Modern Approach to the Valuing Process. 15. Freedom and Commitment. 16. The Goal: The Fully Functioning Person. A Montorium on Schooling. 17. A Person-Centered Perspective on Transforming Education. A Road Less Traveled. 18. Some Reflections. Appendix. Index.