Customer Reviews

Education For Changing Unions

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This book is perhaps the most valuable contribution to union education in many years. More unions need to understand that education is not about information, it is about transformation. It is about helping working people understand the world around them and how they have the power to change it. This isn't done by telling them about it, or by giving them a fancy PowerPoint presentation. It is done by using their own experience and knowledge to help them transform their understanding. This book has an excellent balance of foundation and practicality, including a large number of "recipes" in the form of the authors' favorite union education exercises. Even though I've read it more than once, I take it off the shelf every time I design a new curriculum. It has helped me completely deconstruct and rebuild every educational program in my union, and the results have been inspiring. If more unions took this direction instead of treating their members as empty vessels to be filled with information by "experts," we'd have a very different labor movement in the United States. Finally, though, I have to say that what you find between these pages is not limited to unions in its application. Community groups, religious activists, and all movements for change can gain a great deal from it.