Learning Relations: Impure Education, Deschooled Schools, & Dialogue With Evil

Sidorkin (education, Bowling Green State U., Ohio) develops a theoretical approach to education based on the notion of relation. He defines learning as "production of useless things," and schools as the social setting where students systematically make things that no one really needs. Sidorkin proposes that human relations can provide the motivation for true learning, but this requires a new vision of schools which allow for greater variety of activities and situations. The author addresses theoretical problems in the pedagogy of relation, including educational authority, and relation across difference. A thought-provoking text for teachers, teacher trainees, and administrators, but accessible to the general reader. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)