Educational Theory in British Children's Literary Classics

Thomas Albritton is associate professor of English education at High Point University.

Thomas Albritton’s work would enthrall any educator, developmental psychologist, philosopher, or lover of children’s literature with its astute and witty analysis of British children’s classics through the lens of education. I had never thought of these classics as commentaries on approaches to education, but as Albritton demonstrates, of course they are. He helps readers to understand their favorite characters from childhood as representations of the teachers, classmates, and parents they’ve encountered throughout their lives and places these representations adeptly in the context of modern education and school reform.

• Foreword by the Series EditorsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Learning Down the Rabbit Hole: Lewis Carroll’s Alice Novels as Case Studies of Human DevelopmentChapter 2: Beatrix Potter as a Champion of Progressive EducationChapter 3: The Neverland Academy: Formal Schooling vs. Natural Learning in Peter PanChapter 4: The Wind in the Willows and Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”Chapter 5: A Bear of Very Little Brain: Winnie-the-Pooh and Growth MindsetChapter 6: Always Winter, But Never Christmas: Narnia and High Stakes TestingChapter 7: How Bilbo Learns: Environmental Inquiry and Reflective Practice in The HobbitChapter 8: How Hogwarts Teaches: Identity, Personality, and InstructionEpilogue: Lessons in Literature: What Readers See Through the Lens of EducationBibliographyIndexAbout the Author