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Education

A Very Short Introduction

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Education

By: Gary Thomas
Narrated by: Chris Reilly
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Since the early Egyptians human beings have formalized the business of learning, setting up a designated environment of some form to pass knowledge and learning on to groups of students. In this second edition of his Very Short Introduction, Gary Thomas explores how and why education has evolved as it has, examining the ways in which it has responded over the centuries to various influences in politics, philosophy, and the social sciences. Focusing on education today, he considers especially the controversies over progressive versus formal teaching, and also examines education worldwide, assessing the accelerating trend on both sides of the Atlantic of the move to charter, academy, and "free" schools.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated moves to online learning in schools and universities, and in this new edition Thomas looks again at curriculums and what shape they should take in a rapidly changing world. He asks why action on race, gender and social inequality has borne so little fruit thus far, questioning the oft-made claim of education to be a force for social mobility, and offering an analysis on how education may develop over the coming century.

©2021 Gary Thomas (P)2022 Tantor Education Student
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I felt like a tourist with an amazing local tour guide. The author smoothly navigated me through some of the history and important Macro topics that influence and currently underpin our contemporary educational landscape.

Succinct and substantive

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You can learn a fair bit about the history of education and educational philosophies from this book, but it is remarkably biased in favor of "progressive" approaches. Even the most outlandish proposals of the progressives are presented without any critical comment. Non-progressive approaches appear as boogeyman to be banished by the progressives. Of the many thinkers mentioned by name in the book the only non-progressive given any space is,Michael Oakshott. The fact that E.D. Hirsch remains unmentioned points to the severity of the book's bias.

somewhat ruined by progressive bias

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