Education Empowered
A Holistic Blueprint for Building Better Schools and a Better World
Matter-of-fact and comprehensive, Education Empowered lays the groundwork for innovation in education.
Srinivas Jallepalli’s encyclopedic pedagogical guide Education Empowered champions child-centered education philosophies and curricula.
A sweeping compilation of historical and current educational ideologies, this book argues that educators should “prioritize flexible learning and transferable skills” in children. Its focus is on nurturing foundational character competencies like curiosity, creativity, communication, and resilience. Ambitious in scope and drawing on historical and contemporary educational philosophies, the book emphasizes clear pedagogical approaches for holistic curricula tailored to individual students.
Collectively, the book’s four parts reflect its expansive review of children’s education. For instance, it first covers human inventions from the industrial and digital revolutions and notable figures in early-childhood-education theory to ground its advocacy for innovative, small-classroom teaching practices. It outlines human competencies and discusses the origins of formal education too. The principles of Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and the Reggio Emilia approach form the basis of its proposed education curriculum, manifesting in three pillars (holistic curriculum, foundational competencies, and individualized programs) to foster progressive learning methods. It encourages focusing on physical health, too, with principles for getting enough sleep and nurturing mental health.
Grounded in pragmatism, the text balances optimism for tailored children’s curricula with acknowledgements of the complexities of modern education, including socioeconomic challenges. However, the application element of the book’s three pillars draws from multiple child-centered teaching methodologies, limiting its originality. Nonetheless, its detailed sample lesson plans, images, charts, and tables expand on those theories with precision and depth.
Information about the roles teachers play, how environments impact learning, and ways to cultivate a growth mindset follow before the book makes note of the impacts of financial costs, gender disparity, and home life on a child’s success. Examples from a selection of educators, philosophers, and progressive schools are incorporated, resulting in breadth. Indeed, anecdotes and case studies covering several countries including the United States, India, and Finland are included. Illustrations complement the text, as with those that depict key human accomplishments spanning 5 million years, 450 years, and 100 years.
At times, though, the text is too voluminous. For example, its “unpacking” of the “genius of Homo sapiens” to include cerebral attributes, competencies, and accomplishments takes up a sizable amount of space. And in building its case for individual learning, the text sometimes includes details about complex scientific topics, such as regions of the brain or the body’s immune system, that slow its pace. Still, this wide-ranging resource stands to be useful as a reference to return to. And a mix of elevated rhetoric and straightforward prose keeps the book accessible.
Education Empowered is an eye-opening education manual to tailoring learning curricula to nurture individual strengths.
Reviewed by
Katy Keffer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
