Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #626524 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-23
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.26 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 392 pages

From Amazon.com
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

From Publishers Weekly
In The Chalice and the Blade, Eisler described the evolution of Western society in terms of two competing forms of social organization: the "dominator" model, characterized by authoritarian relationships, war and male domination, and the "partnership" model, characterized by democratic, egalitarian social structures and gender equity. Now she brings her theory of cultural transformation to bear on education and the complex problem of how to prepare children for a "partnership" society, or, how to encourage them to become nonsexist, nonracist, "healthy, caring, competent, self-realized adults." Eisler has done her homework, demonstrating a sophisticated grasp of learning theory, child development, interdisciplinary curricula and the complex social contexts of education. Though many of her suggestions--such as teaching a multicultural curriculum that emphasizes examples of partnership and "asking questions that do not have yes or no 'right' answers but, instead, provoke thought"--are familiar, she synthesizes a variety of classroom techniques into a compelling framework for developing lessons that speak to the urgency of the environmental and social challenges facing us in the next century. Inviting readers to think outside conventional boxes of educational reform, this is an ambitious, imaginative and practical guide to a better educational future.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Eisler (The Chalice and the Blade, 1987) introduced the concept of the partnership model, a model of society that embodies equity, environmental protection, multiculturalism, and gender-fairness. Here, she applies the partnership model to modern education, giving readers a picture of how education might function in the 21st century. Eisler proposes an "expanded approach to educational reform that can help young people meet the unprecedented challenges of a world in which technology can either destroy us or free us to actualize our unique human capacities for creativity and caring." Timely, inspirational, and challenging, this book offers a balanced and useful approach to education and the development of humanity. Schoolteachers, educators, administrators, and parents will find the additional resources at the end of this book useful. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.
-Samuel T. Huang, Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.