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Critical Lessons: What our Schools Should Teach
How can schools prepare students for real life? What should students learn in high school that is rarely addressed today? Critical Lessons recommends sharing highly controversial issues with high school students, including “hot” questions on war, gender, advertising, and religion.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published May 31, 2006
7 people are currently reading
140 people want to read
About the author
Nel Noddings
54 books51 followersNel Noddings is an American feminist, educationalist, and philosopher best known for her work in philosophy of education, educational theory, and ethics of care.
Noddings received a bachelors degree in mathematics and physical science from Montclair State College in New Jersey, a masters degree in mathematics from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. in education from the Stanford University School of Education.
Nel Noddings worked in many areas of the education system. She spent seventeen years as an elementary and high school mathematics teacher and school administrator, before earning her PhD and beginning work as an academic in the fields of philosophy of education, theory of education and ethics, specifically moral education and ethics of care. She became a member of the Stanford faculty in 1977, and was the Jacks Professor of Child Education from 1992 until 1998. While at Stanford University she received awards for teaching excellence in 1981, 1982 and 1997, and was the associate dean or acting dean of the School of Education for four years. After leaving Stanford University, she held positions at Columbia University and Colgate University. She is past president of the Philosophy of Education Society and the John Dewey Society. In 2002-2003 she held the John W. Porter Chair in Urban Education at Eastern Michigan University. She has been Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Emerita, at Stanford University since she retired in 1998.
Nel Noddings has 10 children and in 2009 had been married for 60 years. She has described her early educational experiences and her close relationships as key in her development of her philosophical position.
Noddings received a bachelors degree in mathematics and physical science from Montclair State College in New Jersey, a masters degree in mathematics from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. in education from the Stanford University School of Education.
Nel Noddings worked in many areas of the education system. She spent seventeen years as an elementary and high school mathematics teacher and school administrator, before earning her PhD and beginning work as an academic in the fields of philosophy of education, theory of education and ethics, specifically moral education and ethics of care. She became a member of the Stanford faculty in 1977, and was the Jacks Professor of Child Education from 1992 until 1998. While at Stanford University she received awards for teaching excellence in 1981, 1982 and 1997, and was the associate dean or acting dean of the School of Education for four years. After leaving Stanford University, she held positions at Columbia University and Colgate University. She is past president of the Philosophy of Education Society and the John Dewey Society. In 2002-2003 she held the John W. Porter Chair in Urban Education at Eastern Michigan University. She has been Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Emerita, at Stanford University since she retired in 1998.
Nel Noddings has 10 children and in 2009 had been married for 60 years. She has described her early educational experiences and her close relationships as key in her development of her philosophical position.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 23, 2019
Excellent introduction to Nel Neddings and her philosophies of education, care and other topics. Noddings is a great contemporary thinker who is all about caring for students. While her ideas for curriculum are a bit lofty and short on practical details (as is expected from a philosophical book), her ideas allow for an empathetic approach to educating students. I will integrate some of her ideas into my high school classroom this fall.
August 24, 2016
An accessible yet significant read! Noddings has a very approachable writing style that she uses to communicate central insights into what we have the opportunity (and arguably the responsibility) to teach in our school system. It's an inspiring book for aspiring educators and experienced educators alike.
As Noddings says in chapter 4, "As listeners, we are soaked in obligation" (107). After reading Critical Lessons, I happily felt an obligation to teach things that really matter and like I had a better sense of what that might actually mean.
As Noddings says in chapter 4, "As listeners, we are soaked in obligation" (107). After reading Critical Lessons, I happily felt an obligation to teach things that really matter and like I had a better sense of what that might actually mean.
June 10, 2008
For all educators or those interested in education. A fascinating and passionate study of what our children should be learning to help them be happy and prosperous in contemporary America. By teaching college prep alone (and poorly at that), Noddings argues, we are abandoning young people to a complicated world full of pitfalls that they have no way of understanding or navigating. I hope we see more of Nodding's kinds of thinking being implemented in American schools in the very near future.
February 17, 2020
Love your Leaders. And hopefully, some of those leaders will notice the effort Noddings makes in this book of catechism and build a statue, as I am sure the taxpayers are giving Noddings enough money for a comfy living.
The book itself is full of gems, the kind delivered by the annoying old man smelling of tobacco and intestinal gas.
> Every living human being is motivated.
That's all. Or
> We are motivated to satisfy our felt needs.
Oh! Deep. Or
> Psychologists and philosophers have argued about the meaning of motivation and how to distinguish motives from desires, impulses, instincts, and drives. I will not engage in this debate unless the topic under discussion demands it.
Why bother with reason when you have emotion and gut feeling? The sublime of the fly head bumping the window glass over and over again.
The book itself is full of gems, the kind delivered by the annoying old man smelling of tobacco and intestinal gas.
> Every living human being is motivated.
That's all. Or
> We are motivated to satisfy our felt needs.
Oh! Deep. Or
> Psychologists and philosophers have argued about the meaning of motivation and how to distinguish motives from desires, impulses, instincts, and drives. I will not engage in this debate unless the topic under discussion demands it.
Why bother with reason when you have emotion and gut feeling? The sublime of the fly head bumping the window glass over and over again.
June 24, 2015
I was completely absorbed in this and thought it was exceptionally thought provoking, especially for the home educator - until I wasn't. Intelligent and thought provoking, though we share drastically different world views.
September 2, 2007
love the way noddings writes and weaves her own thoughts and experiences into her narrative.
November 25, 2008
Reading for class...
Ok, so I didn't read the whole thing (didn't have to!), but the parts I did were easy and made me think.
Ok, so I didn't read the whole thing (didn't have to!), but the parts I did were easy and made me think.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews