The Gleam of Light

Moral Perfectionism and Education in Dewey and Emerson

Naoko Saito author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Fordham University Press

Published:15th Nov '06

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Gleam of Light cover

In the name of efficiency, the practice of education has come to be dominated by neoliberal ideology and
procedures of standardization and quantification. Such attempts to make all aspects of practice transparent and subject to systematic accounting lack sensitivity to the invisible and the silent, to something in the human
condition that cannot readily be expressed in an either-or form. Seeking alternatives to such trends, Saito reads
Dewey’s idea of progressive education through the lens of Emersonian moral perfectionism (to borrow a term coined by Stanley Cavell). She elucidates a spiritual and aesthetic dimension to Dewey’s notion of growth, one considerably richer than what Dewey alone presents in his typically scientific terminology.
The Gleam of Light: Moral Perfectionism and Education in Dewey and Emerson is available from the publisher on an open-access basis.

"Saito's elegantly written book is a meditation on what she regards as a crisis of nihilism affecting modern democratic life, especially education." -Educational Studies in Japan: International Yearbook "... Exemplifies a vision of education as cooperative inquiry in which heterogenous voices resound yet experiential authority in its full force operates." -Journal of Philosophy of Education "Saito has written an important book with a remarkable educational implication: We should educate every individual to grow by recognizing their unique gleam of light in self-transcendent relation with others different from ourselves while recognizing the Over-Soul sustains us all." -Teachers College Record "A provocative book that will be of value to all who care about Emerson, Dewey, and what they have to say about education." -- -David Hansen Philosophy of Education Society " [A] spirited inquiry ..." -Studies in Philosophy and Education

ISBN: 9780823224630

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

228 pages