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The Myles Horton Reader: Education for Social Change
The Myles Horton Reader Education for Social Change Author:Myles Horton Cornel West has called Myles Horton as "an indescribably courageous and visionary white brother from Tennessee." Horton (19051990) co-founded the Highlander Folk School (now known as the Highlander Research and Education Center), an institution controversial from its beginnings. During the early labor movement, the Highlander School sponso... more »red programs for both union organizers and rank-and-file members; the staff of Highlander saw education as a way to approach and work through problems. Issues of race were always important to the school, which became a beacon for the civil rights movement; its summer institutes included such influential participants as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and Andrew Young. Hortons theory of education as a means for understanding and for driving social change greatly predated its acceptance in the academy, and his work with the labor and civil rights movements provided a model for the "think globally, act locally" motto. Horton thought of learning as a way to change the world collectively, rather than as a means for individual advancement, the way many see the role of education in America today. This commitment to education as an agent of social change allowed Horton to see himself as both a teacher and a student, as one who could learn from others as well as help others learn. For Horton, the equality engendered by a radical love for humanity also underpinned every aspect of education. The Myles Horton Reader provides the reader with a grounding in the path-breaking work of a man who valued education and service above all.« less