In the United States, many people express their political or philosophical opinions by attaching small signs on the back end of their cars, for other drivers to read while stuck in traffic. These “bumper stickers,” as we call them, often attempt to compress an entire worldview into a very brief slogan, so they are usually [...]
ron miller
A map of the alternative education landscape
What type of learning environment is right for your child? Choosing a school, or choosing to educate your child outside the institution of schooling, is an important decision — and today, with many educational choices available to families, a complicated one. There are significant differences among the diverse teaching and learning approaches that often get [...]
Caring education and meaningful democracy
Is it possible to have caring education or a meaningful democracy in a culture that is fundamentally competitive, materialistic, and technocratic? What has brought many of us to this conference is the realization that our political, social, and economic problems are ultimate rooted in a cultural context—the pattern of meanings that guide our lives. The [...]
Toward participatory democracy
As I pursued research for my book on the 1960s-era free school movement, I came across numerous references to the notion of “participatory democracy” as an alternative to modern political ideologies and practices. (1) Many of the young activists who formed SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and other radical groups during that period of [...]
Philosophical sources of holistic education
In American social and intellectual history, the period between 1960 and 1980 will always be recognized as a significant cultural turning point, a time of intense creativity, experimentation, rebellion and integration. Mass movements for social change, such as the civil rights movement (the quest for racial justice and equality) and the women’s liberation movement, and [...]
The Montessori educational vision
We must take into consideration that from birth the child has a power in him.We must not just see the child, but God in him.We must respect the laws of creation in him.” Maria Montessori, 1935 (1989a, p. 98) Maria Montessori pursued her educational work with a spiritual consciousness verging on mysticism. Although her ideas [...]
Thoughts on a holistic curriculum
The emergence of a postmodern civilization, with its many unsolved economic, technological, moral, and ecological problems, is a global phenomenon. The degradation of the earth affects us all. The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of transnational corporations and their elite managers affects us all. Our amazing new powers to manipulate information, communication, [...]
Educating the child’s inner power
The original meaning of the word “education,” according to its Latin roots, is to lead out or bring forth that which lives within the human being. To truly educate is to nourish the unique and unfathomable possibilities that each child introduces into the world. Many teachers and most parents know this and, as individuals, seek [...]
Education for a culture of peace
I am continually astounded and dismayed by the persistence of murderous violence in the world. Humanity seems to be trapped in a deepening spiral of hatred, vengeance, and militarism that will ultimately lead to the horrible destruction of life on this planet. For centuries, our greatest teachers, from Jesus to Gandhi, from St. Francis to [...]
A new culture needs a new education
The transition to a postmodern culture will bring about significant changes in all areas of society. Our ways of thinking about healing, spirituality, food, community, the natural world, and even economics and business are, in a broad sense, turning from the materialism and reductionism of the industrial age to a more organic, holistic, person-centered and [...]
