A deconstruction and reconstruction of learning, development and schooling that urges teachers to explore and create new educational opportunities for themselves and their students. The text asks the following questions: can we create ways for people to learn the kinds of things that are necessary for functional adaption without stifling their capacity to continuously create their growth? Can schools become environments that support children to perform not only as learners but as developers of their lives? This book challenges educators to look at the deeply-rooted assumptions about schooling, learning and development and urges that the way psychology and education have constructed our conceptions of what it means to teach, to learn and to grow may be the most serious impediment to the learning and developing of children. Beyond the criticism, the author presents a methodological reformation of what learning and development are as relational activities and then takes readers on a visit to three radical independant school settings. Arguing that current educational models have been misguided by scientific psychology, the author states that the dominant model of human development actually hinders development. Moreover, as learning theory has become infused with development theory over the past 30 years, the overly cognitive manner in which psychologists have come to think about thinking, learning and development have become further insinuated into education. The prevalent mode of education - aquisitional learning - is grounded in a world view that gives primacy to knowledge and knowing which Holzman believes is inconsistent with ongoing developmental activity. The author discusses educational projects that are self-concious attempts to break with key elements of modern epistomology and the dominant psychologial paradigm as they are perpetrated in contemporary educational theory and practice. Their specific philosophies and practices highlight important methodological issues raised in the attempt to create "postmodern" schools - schools that are more concerned with growing and knowing.