Publisher Description

In this book Joel Spring traces the long tradition of libertarian opposition to established forms of schooling from Rousseau and William Godwin to A.S. Neill and Paulo Freire. He illuminates the central questions that have concerned radical educators: How can teaching encourage independence and self-reliance? Can rigid ideas and ideologies be avoided by radical educators? What is the contradiction between "schooling" and "education"? How does truly libertarian child rearing challenge the family structure? How can real learning free people so they can begin to change the world around them? Spring also discusses the ideas of several figures whose relevance to education is just beginning to be appreciated, including Max Stirner, Franciso Ferrer, Wilhelm Reich, and Tolstoy. Spring concludes with suggestions for what directions radical educational change might now take.

Author Biography

Joel Spring is currently a professor at Queens College of the City University of New York. His great-great-grandfather was the first principal chief of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory, and his grandfather, Joel S. Spring, was a local district chief at the time Indian Territory became Oklahoma. Joel Spring worked as a railroad conductor on the Illinois Central Railroad and for many years lived each summer on an island off the coast of Sitka, Alaska. His novel, "Alaskan Visions," includes many of his Alaskan experiences. Professor Spring's major research interests are history of education

Table of Contents

Introduction 1 - The Radical Critique of Schooling 2 - Ownership of Self 3 - The Growth of Consciousness: Marx to Freire 4 - Sexual Liberation and Summerhill: Reich and Niell 5 - Freeing the Child from Childhood 6 - Present Realities and Futur

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