I’ve been reading David Marshak’s latest book Evolutionary Parenting.  In the book, David highlights the work of three mystics who devoted a great deal of their time and energy to envisioning new forms of education:  Rudolf Steiner, Hazrat Inayat Khan, and Sri Aurobindo (some attention is also given to Montessori education).  Each of these spiritual thinkers had a perspective of the whole human being passing through dynamic stages of development that include physical, vital, mental, and spiritual levels of being.

David integrates these models with interviews conducted with seven families in the Seattle, Washington area who have opted for non-traditional forms of education embracing a holistic perspective.  In some cases, interviews are conducted at intervals (like in the movie 56Up), so you can see the growth and development of kids over a span of time. Evolutionary Parenting is a useful guide to parenting that it gets into all sorts of practical questions that parents and their kids deal with on a daily basis, including issues with mass media, difficulties with traditional schooling, early versus late reading, and transition into college and career among many other topics.

What I found especially intriguing about Marshak’s book is his review of many different types of non-traditional education, including Waldorf schools, homeschooling, travel-experiences-as-education, and independent alternative schools like Nova (a high school in Seattle).  Evolutionary Parenting is a book that every parent who has a non-traditional holistic perspective on learning for their kids should consider purchasing.  To download the first chapter for free, click here. You can get Evolutionary Parenting from any of these sources:

Buy from Amazon

Buy from Barnes and Noble

Buy through Indie Bound

This page was brought to you by Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. and www.institute4learning.com.

Follow me on Twitter:  @Dr_Armstrong

Subscribe to my blog feed

 

Share This:
About the author

I’m the author of 20 books including my latest, a novel called Childless, which you can order from Amazon.

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Article Archives