Overview

We face an epidemic of disengagement in American high schools as our institutions fail to offer meaningful and relevant ways to connect curriculum with students' emerging life stories. These students do not see how schooling, as it is presently constituted, is important to their own developing identities. One solution to this problem is to organize the curriculum around the concept of community and to link the study of abstract concepts and principles to their manifestations in the places that students know and care about (local history, shared traditions, civic pride, etc.). The Power of Community-Centered Education provides psychological, sociological, historical, and philosophical insights into why community works so well as an organizing principle for high school.

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9781578866519

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Reviews

The Power of Community-Centered Education is a passionate and personal testimonial based on real experiences in education.... [Umphrey] brings his profound insights on education and community together in a treatise that outlines how to create a successful model for 21st-century education. This book should be a must for all adults who are educating children and young adults.... Umphrey's experiences as the director of the Montanta Heritage Project for the past 10 years have resulted in a unique and important view of the way that we learn and the way that we construct our lives from this learning.--Paddy B. Bowman

I am so impressed with this wonderful book about teaching and place.... It has been observed that 90% of our knowledge is folklore (learned by experience), and this is the knowledge that we will pass on to the next generation. Unfortunately, our educational curricula, testing requirements, and bureaucratic busywork have kept teachers and students in a knowledge-restricting straightjacket. The Power of Community-Centered Education gives us a blueprint for breaking out of these constraints to give teachers and students a way back to real experience-based, community-centered learning. -- Peggy A. Bulger, director, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, DC Umphrey's book is part philosophical speculation, part sociological inquiry, part how-to guide for interested educators. Its depth and intellectual substance propel a reader through its pages, looking for more fresh insights and examples of positive educational practice. His message ... fills an important gap in contemporary discussions about what Americans should seek from public schools. What is being lost in our preoccupation with accountability and assessment are more fundamental elements of what it means to be a good human being-and those elements are all tied into relationships with those around us and the places that support our lives. -- Gregory Smith, professor, Graduate School of Education and Counseling, Lewis & Clark College The Power of Community-Centered Education is a passionate and personal testimonial based on real experiences in education.... [Umphrey] brings his profound insights on education and community together in a treatise that outlines how to create a successful model for 21st-century education. This book should be a must for all adults who are educating children and young adults.... Umphrey's experiences as the director of the Montanta Heritage Project for the past 10 years have resulted in a unique and important view of the way that we learn and the way that we construct our lives from this learning. -- Paddy B. Bowman, coordinator, National Network for Arts in Education, Alexandria, VA

Author Information

Michael L. Umphrey has been director of the Heritage Project for the Library of Congress and the Montana Historical Society, as well as a teacher, and high school principal. He is also the author of The Lit Window (1987) and The Breaking Edge (1988) as well as numerous articles.

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