EDUCATION FOR HOPE

In this nonfiction book, an educator explains the development of a school reform proposed by Dutch Neo-Calvinists, its theological underpinnings, and his own involvement in it.

In response to the liberal secularism that dominated the 19th century, Dutch Neo-Calvinists established an alternative education system, one in which faith and a commitment to the teachings of Jesus played a central role. The schools were designed to be largely autonomous, free of any centralized and distant bureaucratic control. There were various administrative departments, but they were comprised of parents and supporters who were mostly members of the Christian Reformed Church. Eventually, this education reform movement was exported by waves of immigrants abroad, especially to the United States beginning in 1845, and then Canada during the 1940s. Hull constructs a remarkably comprehensive history of the movement, one that lays bare not only its technical evolution and theological worldview, but also its extraordinary challenges and even missteps. The failures include the system’s inability to become an impactful agent of greater cultural transformation, one of its original motivations. Hull’s study is an “insider’s account”—he first encountered the movement when he moved to Canada in 1971, and it transformed him as a career educator. He makes a captivating argument that within this vision of school reform is the key to meeting the education challenges people face today. The microscopic detail of Hull’s history can be dizzying—he gives what can be an extremely granular account of the movement’s internecine disputes, a view conveyed with a swarm of often confusing institutional initialisms. But it is difficult to imagine a more thorough reckoning, one impressively balanced given the author’s unabashed advocacy of this education model. Finally, Hull furnishes a refreshingly deep discussion of the goals of education, one often sorely lacking in contemporary debates that typically focus on pedagogical strategy and issue “worn-out promises tied to social efficiency promoted by those committed to scientific and technological solutions to life’s biggest challenges.” Instead, he attempts to begin a dialogue about “what it means to be human, what is most worth knowing, and what constitutes the good life.” This is a valuable contribution to the contemporary conversation about education reform and what is needed to meet the demands of the future.

A scrupulous account of an alternative education movement and a thoughtful recommendation of its principles.