Millennial Child: Transforming Education in the Twenty-First Century

by Eugene M. Schwartz

Today’s children are an endangered species. As a result of the reductionism spawned by Freud and the homogenization of the stages of human life that followed, many children seem to have lost their childhood and been thrust into the confusing and chaotic world of adults.

Eugene Schwartz presents an incisive analysis of the ways in which the errors of the first third of our century have come back to haunt us at the century’s end. After carefully examining Sigmund Freud’s tragic misunderstanding of childhood and tracing its consequences for today’s parents and educators, the author points to the radically new paradigm of childhood development offered by Rudolf Steiner and embodied in Waldorf education.

Parents, teachers, and child psychologists will find a wealth of insight concerning such diverse subjects as the nature of play, the causes of ADHD, computers as teachers, and the power that love and imagination will have in the education of the Millennial Child.

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

An advertising copywriter whose specialty was direct-mail campaigns, Mr. Schwartz was the author of 10 books, including “Breakthrough Advertising” and “The Brilliance Breakthrough.” He wrote some of the most celebrated lines in direct-mail advertising, such as “Give Me 15 Minutes and I’ll Give You a Super-Power Memory,” which launched the first book of the memory expert Harry Lorraine.

He was born on March 18, 1927, in Butte, Mont., and studied at the University of Washington. He moved to New York City in 1949, joining the advertising firm of Huber Hoge & Sons as a messenger boy and working his way up to copy chief. In 1954 he went into business on his own.

Reviews

[Shalinee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Closest thing to an academic presentation of of the "Waldorf thesis" that I've read (not that I've read that much on this topic). The first third of the book (in which he presents the failings of parenting and education in the past century) was okay. Found it be only mildly convincing. The remainder of the book was significantly better. I particularly enjoyed the last third in which the Waldorf curricula is discussed. Found this part particularly convincing.