Education for Life: Preparing Children to Meet Today's Challenges

By Swami Kriyananda and Kriyananda

Book Overview

Offers a constructive and brilliant alternative to what has been called the disaster of modern education. Gives practical techniques for incorporating spiritual values into learning.

Education for Life offers a constructive and brilliant alternative to what has been called the disaster of modern education. The need for a change is universally recognized. The statistics of illiteracy, drug abuse, and violence speak for themselves. In this book, Kriyananda traces the problems to an emphasis on technological competence at the expense of spiritual values, which alone can give higher meaning to life. Education for Life offers parents, educators, and concerned citizens everywhere techniques that are both compassionate and practical.

This revolutionary book is based on the pioneering work in India of Paramhansa Yogananda, in the early years of the twentieth century. The Education for Life system has been tested and proven for over three decades at the many Living Wisdom schools located throughout the United States.

This book is a workable combination of idealism and practicality telling educators what to teach, when to teach it, how to teach it, and why. Educators in both American and Europe have acclaimed the Living Wisdom schools as places where children are encouraged to grow toward full maturity as human beings, and where they learn not only facts, but also innovative principles for better living.

" T]he true goal of the education we receive during our school years must be to help prepare us for that lifelong learning process." -J. Donald Walters

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565897404
• ISBN13: 9781565897403
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Crystal Clarity Publishers
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

An awesome model for Education

I have 4 children, all whom have been raised in private schools implementing these valuable teachings. When education is not so much about academics and competition, but character growth, spiritual growth, service, and cooperation, you see some pretty amazing kids as a result. Academics are not underplayed (the average score of the high school students was 95% of national averages on National Aptitude Tests), it's just that academics are not paramount around which all else revolves. I see the results largely as the product of the children's education: caring, loving, generous, kind, self-aware, and yes very smart, individuals as a result of Education for Life. Certainly it is the most profound model of positive education in our age. I'd recommend livingwisdom.org and livingwisdomschool.org for more information. Certainly read this book and if you are not near a school that utilizes the principles you can still bring them into your own family with great success.

Recommended for parents and educators!

If the whole world were to follow the instructions in this book, there would not be any criminals in this sordid planet of ours. The existence of law-breakers in every nation shows us that the education system in this planet is at its infancy. If governments of every nation were to apply the principles outlayed in this book in the various schools, the whole world would have peace and harmony among the different nations. Suicide bombers would cease to exist and there would be a high level of tolerance among the different faiths. The real meaning of education is for life and this book portrays this fundamental truth beautifully. It is easy to read and understand what J. Donald Walters is trying to say. My only hope is that educators will not ignore the beautiful message Walters is trying to convey in this wonderful book.

Meaning in Education

If education followed this model, we wouldn't be having all the problems in high schools resulting from the kids' perceived meaninglessness in these institutions. First, a goal for education is established--educating for all of life, not just for the standardized tests or for job competency. Then we are given some ideas of how this can be done.For example, Walters suggests helping students develop four Tools of Maturity. They are more basic than Gardner's eight multiple intelligences, and by addressing each Tool, every child's strengths will be found and recognized. For me the most powerful part of the book is the section on Progressive Development. A rather different model of working with different children differently according to their energy level has proved very useful in my classroom. I know of only one other author who proposes approaching children differently in this way, and that's Lickona who recommends different approaches depending on moral development. Energy level seems easier to perceive for me.The book could have more specific examples of how to implement the insights it provides, but I think it is meant to be a signpost for parents and teachers, pointing the way, but encouraging us to use our own intuitions to make the journey.