Have you ever read a book you wanted your friends to have already read so you could talk about it with them? This is one of those books. As teacher and teacher educator, I found in the lives of these children echoes of the lives of children and teachers I have taught. Robert Bullough's layered analysis gives entry into the worlds of these children without being titilating or depressing. His analysis articulates the issues of poverty, father absence, drug abuse that teachers deal with. In this way, he connects these stories,34 children's stories, to the larger issues confronting schools and society. More importantly I valued his respectful tone--his book communicates hope and respect for teachers, parents and most importantly these wonderful children whose lives are uncertain. His analysis helps each of us see ways we might make a difference in the uncertain lives of child in our own communities and shools.

Tomorrow's Children is an innovative and remarkable book for the contemporary educator. It provides an indepth understanding of the struggles of teaching and is an amazing resource for people looking to reform the educational framework of our country. This book needs to be in the hands of every parent, teacher and educator.

Eisler puts forth a formula for hope for a future that works for everyone. It does start with the children and every teacher AND parent should read this book...PLEASE!

Cudos to the author for putting forth a recipe for a more hopeful future for the world.

Riane Eisler's new book is a stunning contribution to multicultural pedagogy. Using her macrohistorical theory of dominator/partnership swings, she offers a new framework, structure and content for education. This is one of the most important books to come around in a long time. I hope my children will grow up in a world that has realized the blue print for partnership education that she offers. Rigourously argued, detailed in documentation, this book offers and creates a new future for all.

Noddings, in this book, addresses some of the issues facing our students in this day and age. She looks at issues of school violence, substance abuse, sexuality, etc. from the perspective of curriculum and provides suggestions on how schools could adress these issues based on the philosophy of caring. Noddings is a reconstructionist in her views but in this book offers concrete examples of how caring could be incorporated into the existing curriculum. Her use of examples helps to clarify her concepts and spheres of caring and why she believes schools need to incorporate care into their curricula. I found her first book difficult to read and did not feel that it made her points as clearly as this book does. I would reccomend this book as an entrance into the discussion of what role alternative views, such as caring, could have in our public schools. For people interested in education, public schools, and how to change our students' experiences for the better, this is a good book to read.

Noddings discusses ways that teachers can help students learn why what they believe is important, and often can do this effectively while teaching math or science or other subjects. She sees religion as dealing with critical issues of life and reality. Much of the book then discusses a broad range of what people believe. And she closes by discussing how her suggested approach can actually work in public schools. I think she makes a good case, and that her summary of beliefs is knowledgeable and carefully thought out.

This book, although a bit wordy, is quite interesting especially for classroom teachers or for anyone in the educational field. Whether you are a teacher, counselor or administrator, this book can help guide you towards demonstrating genuinely caring human being behavior that transfers onto your students. Nel Noddings explains that regardless of what subject you teach, you can incorporate moral education into your curriculum. She feels that only by addressing issues of human life and morals will students believe and feel that teachers truly care for them and hence will reciprocate caring behavior.

I haven't actually read the whole book, so I can't speak to the educational implications.
However, I have written two term papers on the "Ethic of Care" or "Feminine Ethic" she proposes in the book (which has required me reading that section at least 20 times). I can say that she has written an ethic that is horribly misunderstood by most readers. If you actually take the time to philosophically analyze her theory, you will find it incredibly more complicated than a cursory read shows. The implications of her theory are astounding, and it should not be underappreciated.
There are a few reviews here which make untenable claims about her introducing nothing new to the issue of morality, a completely ludicrous claim. Her Ethic of Care is not simple by any definition, and her book is part of a revolution that centers moral thought on concrete caring relationships instead of abstract, universal concepts such as justice and truth.
Her claim that men and women think about morality differently is not unjustifiable: men ruled philosophical and ethical thought for 2500 years and no ethic of care resulted; women have been on the philosophy scene for about 30 years and a whole revolution in moral thought has taken place, mostly in this direction. If that's not evidence, what is?
Her theory has intrigued me enough to want to buy this book and read beyond the philosophical chapters to those that concentrate more on educational praxis. I would like to teach one day, albeit at a collegiate level, and I think she would offer a very interesting perspective on education and teaching.

P.S. Anyone that teaches at Columbia and Stanford does not write "trash" ipso facto, as some people writing negative reviews have stated. If that's true, the people writing those reviews would be teaching there as well; let's hope such pretentious people with no background to make such claims never teach beyond a high school level unless they wise up and realize they're not the omniscient centers of the earth.

I also read this book in a class on ethics and education at Rutgers -- not only did I love the book, the professor and the class were also fascinating. While I will admit that Noddings' terminology takes a little getting used to, I found her ideas to be worthwhile and interesting. Noddings sees the teacher as the "one-caring" and the student as the "cared-for". The teacher's role calls for her to see students as the best that they can be and to accept students for what they are while always working to help them develop the student's "best self". What a phenomenal idea! I am a teacher in a large urban school and often, the kids I teach do not have anyone who believes in their "best selves" -- no one has taught them how to dream and what steps to take to realize that vision. Without dreams and plans, kids can not grow. Many of the kids in my school do not feel there is much out there for them. One of the fundamental ways to reach out to these kids is by CARING. I applaud Noddings for pursuing the road less travelled.

Caring is a challenging book to read, because Noddings bases her ethical philosophy on an alternative approach to ethics than we are used to seeing. She argues that the relation between a one-caring and a cared-for should be the focus of how we think about right and wrong. As a fairly conservative and religious person, I find that I am uncomfortable at times with how the book is written. However, I think that has more to do with the examples that Noddings uses rather than the theory itself. Despite her wishing to distance herself from a God, I find her ethical theory to be evocative of the Gospels. If readers accept Noddings on her own terms, I think they will find her theory very different and refreshing. I've read the book again now after a few years and even though it can be difficult to read, I think it's very helpful for educators.

Nel Noddings provides a good introductory text to the history of educational philosophy accessible even to those with little or no formal philosophical background.