Loving Learning ─ How Progressive Education Can Save America's Schools

American education is in crisis. While we look to Finlandor South Korea for models of success, progressiveeducation has been forging creative thinkers in the UnitedStates for over one hundred years. The longtime head ofPark Day School, Tom Little—before being diagnosed withlethal cancer—went on a national tour of progressive schoolsto bring their combined educational knowledge together inthis, his life’s work. As Little and journalist Katherine Ellisonshow, progressive educators help children develop twenty-first-century skills by emphasizing critical thinking, problemsolving, communication, and collaboration. Progressive educatorsteach across disciplines, design lessons inspired by thestudents’ interests, and use hands-on learning. Little and Ellisonintroduce us to students galvanized by real-world learningexperiences such as creating businesses to sell student-madegoods for charity, and they describe how progressive teacherswork to awaken youths’ sense of social justice, engagingthem with issues in their community and beyond.