The ideas upon which public education was founded in the last half of the 19th century were wrong. Despite their continued dominance in educational thinking for a century and a half, these ideas are no more right today. So argues Kieran Egan, an educational theorist, in this study. Kieran Egan explains how we have come to take mistaken concepts about education for granted and why this dooms our attempts at educational reform. Egan traces the 19th-century sources of Progressive thinking about education and their persistence even now. He diagnoses the problem with our schools in a radically different way, and likewise prescribes novel alternatives to present educational practice. This volume seeks to be both persuasive and full of promise.

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Review

One of the most highly regarded educational theorists of our time explains that the ideas upon which public education was founded—and which continue to dominate our educational thinking—are wrong. Kieran Egan diagnoses our school problems in a radically different way, shows why our attempts at reform are doomed, and offers promising, novel alternatives.

“As we have come to expect from Kieran Egan, this book is full of brilliant insights. He has a great gift for posing fundamental, yet non-obvious, questions in such a way that we find some of our most deeply held assumptions up for grabs.”—James Wertsch, Washington University

From the Back Cover

"As we have come to expect from Kieran Egan, this book is full of brilliant insights. He has a great gift for posing fundamental, yet non-obvious, questions in such a way that we find some of our most deeply held assumptions up for grabs." – James Wertsch, Washington University

The ideas upon which public education was founded in the last half of the nineteenth century were wrong. And despite their continued dominance in educational thinking for a century and a half, these ideas are no more right today. So argues one of the most original and highly regarded educational theorists of our time in Getting It Wrong from the Beginning. Kieran Egan explains how we have come to take mistaken concepts about education for granted and why this dooms our attempts at educational reform.

Egan traces the nineteenth-century sources of Progressive thinking about education and their persistence even now. He diagnoses the problem with our schools in a radically different way, and likewise prescribes novel alternatives to present educational practice. His book is both persuasive and full of promise?a book that belongs on the must-read list for anyone who cares about the success of our schools.