A Richer, Brighter Vision for American High Schools

Nel Noddings advocates a unifying educational aim of producing better adults and presents strategies to achieve this in high schools.

Challenging the too-common view of education as merely a means of achieving financial well-being, Noddings advocates a unifying educational aim of producing better adults. This book offers strategies to improve high schools that consider the full range of students' talents and interests and encourage more choice for students and teachers.In today's high schools, education is often reduced to a means of achieving financial security, leading to an overemphasis on quantifiable measures of performance. This approach encourages academically talented students to focus on test scores and rankings rather than intellectual enrichment, and discourages students with non-academic talents from pursuing them. A Richer, Brighter Vision for American High Schools advocates instead a unifying educational aim of producing better adults, which would encompass all aspects of students' lives: intellectual, physical, moral, spiritual, social, vocational, aesthetic, and civic. Nel Noddings offers suggestions to improve high schools by increasing collegiality among students and faculty, enriching curricula with interdisciplinary themes, renewing vocational education programs, addressing parenting and homemaking, and professionalizing the teaching force. This thought-provoking book will act as an important guide for teachers, teacher educators, administrators, and policy makers.