Means to Grow Up

<p>In <em>The Means to Grow Up</em> Robert Halpern describes the pedagogical importance of apprenticeship—a growing movement based in schools youth-serving organizations and arts civic and other cultural institutions. This movement aims to re-engage youth through in-depth learning and unique experiences under the guidance of skilled professionals. Employing a pedagogy of apprenticeship these experiences combine specific visceral and sometimes messy work with opportunity for self-expression increasing responsibility and exposure to the adult world. </p><p>Grounded in ethnographic studies <em>The Means to Grow Up</em> illustrates how students work in unique ways around these meaningful activities and projects across a range of disciplines. Participation in these efforts strengthens skills dispositions and self-knowledge that is critical to future schooling and work renews young peoples’ sense of vitality and fosters a grounded sense of accomplishment. In unearthing the complexities of apprenticeship learning Halpern challenges the education system that is increasingly geared towards the acquisition of de-contextualized skills. Instead he reveals how learning alongside experienced adults can be a profoundly challenging and complex endeavor for adolescents and offers readers an exciting vision of what education can and should be about. </p>