Wounded by School: University Seminar on Innovation in Education, Monday, 10/5, 7-9pm

Our presenter will be Kirtsten Olson, who will discuss her provocative book Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture (Teachers College Press, 2009).

Comments on Wounded by School:

Kirsten Olson has written a book that is at once intellectually engaging and replete with usable resources and proposals for action.... May this splendid book be read, discussed, taken to heart, and put into action by a growing company of educational wounded healers.
-- From the Foreword by Parker J. Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach

This wonderful and probing book is filled with powerful, poignant, passionate stories; stories that are at once fragile and strong, painful and enduring. They make us mourn the losses of laughter and opportunity in schools, weep at the lingering sadness and sorrow in schools, laugh at the absurdities; and grin at the moments of mischief and inspiration.
-- From the Foreword by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Harvard Graduate School of Education

A brilliant, original, and important book. Wounded by School makes an eloquent and moving case for the radical re-invention of our schools."
-- Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap and Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group

Kirsten Olson’s book is refreshingly unlike the general run of sludge I associate with writing about pedagogy: It seems to be entirely free of the familiar platitudes which replace thought when we read about school matters, is scrubbed clean of pretentious jargon, and offers up the twists and turns of Olson's analysis and citations with beautiful clarity. I can't imagine anyone not being better for reading this book twice!
--John Taylor Gatto, Author, Dumbing Us Down

While reformers and policymakers focus on achievement gaps, testing, and accountability, millions of students mentally and emotionally disengage from learning and many gifted teachers leave the field. Ironically, today's schooling is damaging the single most essential component to education -- the joy of learning.

How do we recognize the "wounds" caused by outdated schooling policies? How do we heal them? In her controversial new book, education writer and critic Kirsten Olson brings to light the devastating consequences of an educational approach that values conformity over creativity, flattens student's interests, and dampens down=2 0differences among learners. Drawing on deeply emotional stories, Olson shows that current institutional structures do not produce the kinds of minds and thinking that society really needs. Instead, the system tends to shame, disable, and bore many learners. Most importantly, she presents the experiences of wounded learners who have healed and shows what teachers, parents, and students can do right now to help themselves stay healthy.

Kirsten Olson is a writer, educational consultant, and national-level Courage To Teach facilitator. She has been a consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Kennedy School at Harvard University, and many large public school systems and charter schools.

This seminar, co-sponsored by the Gottesman Libraries and Teachers College Press, is the first meeting of the 2009-2010 season of the University Seminar on Innovation in Education which is co-chaired by Ronald Gross who also conducts the Socratic Conversations at the Gottesman Libraries; and Robert McClintock, John L. and Sue Ann Weinberg Professor in the Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education at Teachers College. Founded in 1970, the Seminar explores the process of learning in individuals, organizations, and society – throughout the lifespan and via major institutions.

The next University Seminar will be held on November 9. Topic: TBA.

Where: 305 Russell