Reimagining the Classroom: Creating New Learning Spaces and Connecting with the World - Paperback

by Theodore Richards (Author)

A practical approach to shared inquiry and exploration in K-12 classrooms

We are in a period of unknowns unlike any in a generation or more. As educators, we need new pathways and ideas that can help us educate children for the world to come. Reimagining the Classroom: Creating New Learning Spaces and Connecting with the World provides practical steps and examples that parents and educators can use to begin to create new learning spaces, approaches, and outcomes. Dr. Richards' provocative book asks us to reconsider some of our basic assumptions about teaching and learning. It helps parents and educators question and recast these assumptions and practices while providing concrete, tested activities and ideas that will help readers reimagine educational spaces rooted in the notion that classrooms--and the stories we tell in them--are a metaphor for the world we hope to create.

Reimagining the Classroom is divided into two parts. The first offers the intellectual framework parents and educators are seeking; it identifies specific problems with current approaches, offers an alternative vision and set of narratives, and then offers a new pedagogy to satisfy this vision. The second part of the book moves from the theoretical to the practical. Dr. Richards provides tested pedagogical tools for classrooms in science and math; literature and fine arts; spirituality and mindfulness; practical arts; and justice and social-emotional learning.

• Discover practical tools for creating educational spaces that prepare students for the world they will encounter
• Help students express their values and learn to live in community
• Replace or supplement school with at-home learning and activities that will give students an edge for the future
• Learn how the traditional approach to education is failing our kids and leading to an epidemic of depression and anxiety

For educators and parents ready to consider a radical shift in service of our children's wellbeing, this book explains what, fundamentally, education can and should look like.

Back Jacket

RETHINKING K-12 EDUCATION FOR A WORLD IN TRANSITION

The world is changing, and we have an unprecedented opportunity to consider how and why we do what we do. In Reimagining the Classroom, renowned educator Dr. Theodore Richards identifies the flaws in traditional approaches to teaching and learning, encouraging us to reengage with the foundation of education. How can we create spaces that truly prepare our students for life? How can we educate children to think of themselves as creators, rather than consumers? By confronting profound questions and identifying practical answers, we can reimagine every aspect of the school day.

This book offers both an inspiring take on the learning process and a practical guide for the future, with steps and examples parents and educators can use to begin to create new learning spaces, approaches, and outcomes. Dr. Richards offers specific practices for reimagined learning in science and math, literature and fine arts, spirituality and mindfulness, practical arts, and justice and social-emotional learning. Educators will also learn to create their own lessons using a powerful new framework. With Reimagining the Classroom, we can embrace this once-in-a-lifetime chance to rethink how we live as human beings in community, beginning with our children.

"Reimagining the Classroom offers a radical vision for education in a time of crisis and transformation. In addition to providing hands-on ideas for educators and parents, it presents us with an entirely new way of looking at learning spaces and practices, ultimately taking the reader beyond the confines of the traditional classroom and offering a pedagogy for transforming our world."

--ARNE DUNCAN, Chicago CRED

"Theodore Richards is an inspired educator and artisan of cultural regeneration, a visionary activist. In these gem-filled pages, he reimagines the fundamentals of education--the art of becoming fully human--supporting us all to enhance the health and diversity of our endangered Earth communities. Essential subversive reading for twenty-first century change agents."

--BILL PLOTKIN, PhD, author of Soulcraft, Wild Mind, and Nature and the Human Soul

Author Biography

DR. THEODORE RICHARDS is the founder of Wisdom Projects, a national organization dedicated to reimagining education and community. Dr. Richards has taught in numerous settings, from a rural adult literacy program in Zimbabwe to youth in Harlem and the South Side of Chicago. He is currently an adjunct professor of philosophy with the Odyssey Project.