In today's educational crisis, many people are coming to realize that there is far more to a school than imparting knowledge and skills and administering tests. Schools are communities, and like all communities, they can be healthy or unhealthy. School Renewal speaks to the problems and challenges of developing healthy schools. Using mythology, personal experience, and his research, Torin Finser describes how teachers and parents can handle such common problems as burnout, organizational stress, interpersonal conflict, and change.

Most importantly, he urges, an educational community must address the many unseen dimensions of each human being. He shows how these little-understood aspects of the mind can be nourished to create an economical, exciting, and lasting renewal of school life.

School Renewal does not offer formulas and slapdash solutions. Instead, it encourages a whole new way of thinking about education and personal growth, both for children and the adults who care about them.

Torin Finser understands what it's like to deeply care, and sometimes to overcare, about the education of our children. His message will be a healing balm for those open to his wise and practical counsel. I want to rush out and buy a copy of this book for every teacher and parent I know.

Wise guidance for those of us who want to be good stewards of our children and the schools that serve them. Taken to heart, this book will help education come into the fullness that our children deserve.

TORIN FINSER, Ph.D., is director of the Waldorf Teacher Training Program at Antioch New England in Keene, New Hampshire. He has been a Waldorf teacher for over twenty-five years and works as a consultant to schools throughout North America. His first book, School as a Journey, is a widely-read introduction to Waldorf education.

May 2002; AP; 192pp; pb;