In a World of Violence, the Search for a New Humanism

There is widespread dissatisfaction with public education and innumerable are the vain attempts at reform. Complaints are made that the schools are overburdened, and learned men disagree over whether the curriculum should be cut in one place or another. But it is impossible to reform the school with scissors. Today we see schools in which children sit listening passively to lecturing teachers, and then spend the remaining free time of the day in a painful effort to learn what has been taught in the lesson. What needs to be done is to turn these teaching institutions into working communities where children actually can collaborate with their teachers. (p. 25)