Reclaiming a Conversation (Paperback)

Paperback. In this book Jane Roland Martin joins in conversation with five philosophers-Plato, Rousseau, Mary Wollstonecraft, Catharine Beecher, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman-about how women should be educated in an ideal society, and she draws out implications for the education of both sexes today."A timely and important contribution both to feminist theory and to the philosophy of education."-Carol Gilligan, Harvard University"Fascinating. . . . The juxtaposition of views, together with Martin's critical comparisons, illuminates each account."-Martha Nussbaum, New York Review of Books"Martin's careful work shows [that]. . . a serious effort to design ideal education for women makes it necessary also to rethink men's schooling. This is an important book."-Library Journal"Martin has provided a uniquely valuable service to educators."-Sandra Harding, Journal of Education"This is a decidedly intelligent and well-written book."-Margaret Canovan, Times Higher Education Supplement"The book ends with questions rather than answers: how best can each of us reflect all things human in our own lives, and how can education prepare us to do so effectively? The great strength of Martin's work is the historical resonance that it gives both to these questions and the understanding of their fundamental importance for men and women alike."-Margaret Rouse Bates, SignsSelected as an American Educational Studies Association's "Critics Choice" book for 1986 An erudite analysis, comparison and critique of five theoretical systems of female education from Plato to the early 20th century. The author ultimately synthesizes the various theories into her own recommendations for an education that satisfies the needs of both men and women. Today's educators follow Plato's system of identical, "gender-blind" coeducation as outlined in his Republic. But, as Martin points out, the male/female rulers-to-be in Plato's ideal state lived in a world without marriage, homes, families. Children were reared by nurses. The governing class was not to be distracted by domestic details. Thus its educational system gave no heed to the development of nurturing skills or, in Martin's words, "the reproductive processes of society." It stressed development of the "productive" abilities required for participation in and leadership of society-at-large. Rousseau, however, believed the family to be the linchpin of a democratic society. In Emile (1762), the young boy is educated to be a self-sufficient member of society. The wife, however, is trained solely to please, obey and rear children. Her "gender-bound" education stresses only the reproductive process. Mary Woolstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Women) later challenged Rousseau, claiming that a woman so educated would be too superficial even to make a fit wife or mother. She called for an intensive education for women, even though they would end up in domesticity anyway. Catharine Beecher's A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1842) called for raising the status of motherhood and wifehood through an education that would have turned out professionals in the domestic arts - home economics majors, in other words. In a radical departure, prefiguring some of the more garish excesses of the women's liberation movement, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1915 novel Herland involved an all-female society that reproduces parthogenetically. Biological mothers nurse their daughters, but their upbringing and education is assigned to specialists who allow them to develop naturally in a stimulus-rich environment. They then can decide on the specialties they want to pursue, for careers as well as enjoyment. Martin concludes that there should be an alternative to "gender-bound" or "gender-blind" education: a "gender-sensitive' curriculum permeated with Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…