Ron Miller

(Holistic Education Press, 1997)

According to many futurists and cultural historians, a significant cultural shift has begun to occur: the decline of the modern, industrial era and the rise of a “postmodern” civilization that could usher in radical changes in politics, economics, and other social institutions, including education. One of the emerging strands of postmodern thought, known as holistic thinking, is an ecological worldview that is influenced by new scientific paradigms as well as classical and indigenous spiritual traditions. As the founder of the journal Holistic Education Review (now entitled Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice), Miller is among the best known and best informed interpreters of the holistic education movement. What Are Schools For? provides a concise account of the historical origins of American public schooling. Using a broad American Studies perspective that draws on research in social and intellectual history as well as a critical interpretation of educational theory, Miller identifies key cultural themes that have influenced the purpose, structure, and methods of modern educational institutions. He explains, for example, how the modernist worldview associated with capitalism and scientific reductionism underlies conventional assumptions about schools, teaching and learning. Miller then demonstrates that holistic education, grounded in a fundamentally different worldview, reflects very different assumptions about education and schooling.

Holistic education has philosophical roots in the romantic and Transcendentalist movements of the nineteenth century, but it has developed into a sophisticated postmodern critique of contemporary schooling. What Are Schools For? defines the contributions that various dissident educators have made to the holistic critique, from Pestalozzi and Froebel, to Montessori and Steiner, to progressive and humanistic educators. This book is the only serious comparative study available of these diverse alternative movements. It is a seminal text in the emerging literature of holistic education and has inspired many teachers, administrators, and graduate students.

This third edition addresses the important work that has been done in recent years on postmodernism, ecology, spirituality, and culture, and within the field of holistic education that Miller himself helped develop. It contains a critique of the standards movement and Goals 2000, and an expanded bibliography.

The Foundation for Educational Renewal
Box 328, Brandon, VT 05733-0328
1-800-639-4122
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