by Peter Hennessy
White Knight Books, 2006
ISBN 0-9736705-6-8
$21.95, 274 pp, softcover, adult
www.whiteknightbooks.ca

It is not often that one reads a book about educational philosophy from cover to cover, without wanting a break, but that is what may happen to readers when they sit down to flip through Peter Hennessy’s new book, From Student to Citizen: A Community-Based Vision for Democracy. He provides an enlightening and authoritative analysis of education in Ontario over the past fifty years, and discusses the subject of schools and citizenship, based on his teaching and administrative experiences as well as on relevant academic research. 
Hennessey outlines how schools have changed since the post-war years, and how students have been hurt by changes in governments and poorly thought-out educational policies. He urges parents and educators to look at what has gone wrong, and why, so that they can remedy what many view as the current sad state of public education—where thousands drop out of school, and many more become disengaged. As he argues, we must fight “stunted civic growth in the schoolhouse.”
Hennessey claims that humanely-run schools can help to contribute to the improvement of our society by producing students who are critical thinkers. He suggests that teachers connect teenagers to the outside world, in active, hands-on ways, if they want their students to become engaged in their communities. He also argues for a dramatic shift in how adults view issues such as homework assignments, standardized tests, and institutionalized, traditional types of learning. Instead, he proposes a “de-schooling” of thought and policy.
The combination of personal story-telling and policy analysis in From Student to Citizen makes for a stimulating argument. As suggested by the author, readers will find a link between “...the way we condition our kids in the classroom and their later performance as citizens in a democratic state.” Anyone who is raising or educating teenagers should find Hennessey’s book to be a compelling read for that reason alone.

Reviewed by Mary Shaughnessy

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