A personal response to news of Maxine Greene’s death

Maxine Greene December 23, 1917 – May 29, 2014

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I was so very sad to learn that Maxine passed away on 29th May last. Maxine was one of the most inspirational writers about education that I have ever read. When I first came upon her work back in 1999, I immediately set about buying every one of her books and, as I read them, I was in awe of her amazing intelligence, her wide-ranging and eclectic knowledge, her insatiable curiosity about the big questions surrounding human existence and her vast empathy for the human condition. I felt too, from her words of advice and encouragement to teachers, that she would probably have approved of my efforts to encourage children to think and talk for themselves. Her words influenced me to become critical and wide-awake too: she exhorted me not to accept that the world is as it is but to try to imagine things as though they could be otherwise. Recently, I bought the documentary of her life to show to my education students. She continues now to influence them. Every year, without fail, students tell me she is their favourite philosopher.

Maxine was a huge advocate of reflective practice and we like to think that our work here in eari.ie demonstrates some of her values. May she rest in peace.

See also: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news.htm?articleID=9496

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