Tomorrow's Children: A Blueprint For Partnership Education In The 21st Century - Hardcover

Eisler, Riane

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9780813390406: Tomorrow's Children: A Blueprint For Partnership Education In The 21st Century

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813390400 ISBN 13: 9780813390406

Publisher: Basic Books, 2000

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In the wake of the tragedy of the shootings in Littleton at Columbine High School and other killings of children by children, there is increasing recognition of the urgent need for a deep systemic reassessment of what we are teaching our children. Based on the multidisciplinary research conducted by Riane Eisler over three decades, Tomorrow's Children presents a new integrated model for education: the partnership model.This model is an outgrowth of the cultural transformation theory developed by Dr. Eisler in her classic work The Chalice and the Blade. In that book, Eisler identifies a continuum of patterns for structuring relations. At one end of the continuum is the partnership model, which embodies equity, environmental sustainability, multiculturalism, and gender-fairness. At the opposite end of the continuum is the dominator model, which has marred much of our civilization. This model emphasizes control, authoritarianism, violence, gender discrimination, and environmental destruction. Eisler also shows that we today stand at a crossroads, where a shift to the partnership end of the continuum is essential for human welfare, and possibly survival. A new kind of education system is required to effectuate this shift. Tomorrow's Children applies the partnership model to education from kindergarten to twelfth grade and beyond, providing practical guidance for educators, parents, and students. Rather than one more add-on to existing methods and curricula, it provides a systemic approach that offers a more accurate and hopeful picture of what being human means. The curriculum loom and learning tapestry Eisler presents in Tomorrow's Children integrate three primary components of teaching and learning: what Eisler calls partnership process, partnership structure, and partnership content. The book melds Eisler's research and the work of many progressive educators into a cohesive and compelling blueprint for the kind of proactive education children need to meet the challenges of the 21st century. As Nel Noddings, a noted professor of education from Stanford University, writes, the adoption of a partnership model in both schools and the larger society is essential for human life to flourish.”

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Review:

From the three little pigs to Shakespeare's tragedies, the literature children study and absorb throughout their school years smacks of trickery, cruelty, and heroic violence. Similar examples can be drawn from science (ruthless genes "competing on the evolutionary stage") and from religion (man as "a species irretrievably flawed by 'original sin'"). Dr. Riane Eisler offers an alternative course of action for educators worldwide: the partnership model (previously outlined in her 1987 international bestseller, The Chalice and the Blade), an educational tapestry that focuses on working together, invites exploration, promotes self-confidence in youth through encouraging their active participation, and fosters creativity rather than squelching it. Her well-documented premise--directed primarily at the American teaching audience--is that much of our current curricula promotes and glorifies a dominator society, valuing control, violence, and gender discrimination. Such lessons, often emphasized out of tradition, can unintentionally encourage kids to choose from one of three lonely roles in an authoritarian world: lead, follow, or get out of the way. Eisler packs Tomorrow's Children with counter examples from mythology, history, math, science, art, the humanities, and other subjects--all in support of teaching lessons about effective partnership and the impact each earthly creature has on its environment and on its fellow creatures. It's a tough but valuable read, requiring careful attention and demanding group discussion. The last quarter of the book offers a huge supply of additional resources, including over 30 sample curriculum materials and handouts, detailed notes corresponding to each chapter, and Eisler's inspirational epilogue that highlights achievements in schools already using partnership models. --Liane Thomas

About the Author:

Riane Eisler is best known as the author of the international bestseller The Chalice and the Blade (Harper & Row, 1987). Her other works include Sacred Pleasure (HarperCollins, 1995), The Partnership Way (Holistic Education Press, 1998), and most recently her fictionalized memoir of growing up in Havana, Cuba, as a refugee from the Nazis, The Gate (iuniverse.com). Dr. Eisler is president of the Center for Partnership Studies, keynotes conferences around the world, and lives with her husband in the Monterey Peninsula.

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