Overschooled but undereducated : how the crisis in education is jeopardizing our adolescents / John Abbott with Heather MacTaggart.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A fable: the whole story in fewer than 2,500 words -- Wonder of learning -- Human nature: a brain for all times -- Nurture and culture -- Hands-on apprentices to hands-off pupils -- Lest we fail to learn from our mistakes -- Adolescents left out -- What kind of education for what kind of world? -- Knowing what we know; what's to be done? -- Appendix A: the 21st century learning initiative -- Appendix B: Synthesis -- Appendix C: Prophets of a future not our own.

This book synthesizes an array of research and shows how these insights can contribute to a better understanding of human learning, especially as this relates to adolescence. By mis-understanding teenagers' instinctive need to do things for themselves, society is in danger of creating a system of schooling that so goes against the natural grain of the adolescent brain that formal education ends up unintentionally trivialising the very young people it claims to be supporting. By failing to keep up with appropriate research in the biological and social sciences, current educational systems continue to treat adolescence as a problem rather than an opportunity. This book is about the need for transformational change in education. It synthesizes an array of research from both the physical and social sciences and shows how these insights can contribute to a better understanding of human learning, especially as this relates to adolescence. The book was conceived through a series of international conferences, and considers the education systems in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand. Its intention is to shake education out of its two-century's-old inertia. In the saga of the ages, if a generation fails, the fault lies squarely with the previous generation for not equipping them well enough for the changes ahead.