Transforming History: A New Curriculum for a Planetary Culture

by William Irwin Thompson

Education is currently a foremost concern for many Americans. Education, however, is about more than teaching children skills for earning a living and how to function in life. It is really a means of transmitting both a culture and a heritage. William Irwin Thompson, one of today's most innovative interdisciplinary thinkers, talks about how to transform a cultural legacy in the course of transmitting it. His visionary approach takes education far beyond the bland, watered-down curricula so many students face today in public and private schools. Thompson offers us a mind-rattling tour of our potential as human beings, from the Gilgamesh epic of 2000 B.C.E. to Disney, popular music, current politics and social crises, and beyond. He not only presents a far-reaching system of knowledge and teaching, but also suggests how we can stimulate the best and healthiest patterns of development in our children and teenagers. TRANSFORMING HISTORY will enlighten today's educators and anyone concerned with improving our legacy and our children's place in it.

Genres: History, Education, Philosophy, Anthropology

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2009

About the author

William Irwin Thompson is an American social philosopher, cultural critic, and poet. He received the Oslo International Poetry Festival Award in 1986. He describes his writing and speaking style as "mind-jazz on ancient texts". He is the founder of the Lindisfarne Association.

Reviews

[Carl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretentious elitist horseshit!

[Doni · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like that Thompson is trying to break through the mold of patriarchal jingoist individualist history. I also like his idea of teaching concepts within the historical context in which they were developed. However, his description is too cursory even if you were persuaded to follow his suggested curriculum. Also, I prefer teaching history starting with what is relevant today and working backward which doesn't jive at all with his suggested approach. Much of what he focuses on is so obscure that the teacher would have a difficult enough time processing the material on her own, let alone teaching it to young kids. That he relies on the Waldorf model for child development makes me question the veracity of the rest of his claims.