Author: Ralf Koerrenz File Type: pdf This volume examines Otto Friedrich Bollnows philosophical approach to education, which brought Heideggers existentialism together with other theories of what it is to be human. This introduction to Bollnows work begins with a summary of the theoretical influences that Bollnow synthesized, and goes on to outline his highly original account of experiential educational reality--namely, as a reality alternately harmonious or broken, but fundamentally guided. This book will be of value to scholars and students of education and philosophy, especially those interested in bringing larger existential questions into connection with everyday educational engagement.

Author: Errol Lincoln Uys File Type: pdf There is no feeling in the world like sitting in a side-door Pullman and watching the world go by, listening to the clickety-clack of the wheels, hearing that old steam whistle blowing for crossings and towns. -George Phillips in Riding the Rails At the height of the Great Depression, 250,000 teenage hoboes were riding the rails and roaming America. Some left home out of desperation and went looking for work and a better life, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles on the rumor of a job waiting farther down the line. Others left out of boredom still others with a wanderlust and romantic idea of life on the road. The restless youth of these boxcar boys and girls, many who went from middle-class gentility to scrabble-ass poor overnight, is recaptured in Riding the Rails. Based on the award-winning documentary, this book dispels the myths of a hobo existence and reveals the hard stories of a daring generation of American teenagers-forgotten heroes-who survived some of the hardest times in our nations history. Whether youre a gaycat (novice rider) or a dingbat (seasoned hobo), Riding the Rails is entertaining and inspiring, recapturing a time when the country was dying by inches.**Amazon.com ReviewGo fend for yourself, Clarence Lees father said. I cant afford to have you around any longer. Like hundreds of thousands of other young people across the country during the Great Depression, the 16-year-old left home, hopped a freight train, and started riding the rails. An estimated 250,000 men and women--many of them in their teens--turned to the trains as fast and free transportation. Some left out of desperation and went looking for work, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles on the rumor of a job waiting farther down the line. Others left out of boredom still others with a romantic idea of life on the road. Many realized, too late, that they were leaving little for nothing. Henry Ford, for one, thought the boxcar teens had it made Why its the best education in the world for those boys, that traveling around! They get more experience in a few weeks than they would in years at school. As one contemporary observer noted, however, after about six months on the road, the boys and girls lost their fresh outlook and eagerness. Trips across the continent were no longer educational, but were quests for bread.Errol Lincoln Uys (pronounced Ace) has collected thousands of letters written by boxcar boys and girls about their experiences, and peppers his chapters on the various aspects of hobo life with lengthy quotations, allowing the riders to speak for themselves. They talk about the danger--You had to be careful not to stumble and fall under the wheels when you climbed on the cars--and the desperation--We were always hungry. Wasnt just cause dinner was hours late. It may have been a couple of days late. You were hungry, cold, miserable, with nobody to help you. They also talk about the remarkable kindness of strangers who fed and clothed the riders. Whether youre a gaycat (novice rider) or a dingbat (seasoned hobo), Riding the Rails is entertaining and inspiring, recapturing a time when the country was dying by inches. --Sunny DelaneyFrom Publishers Weekly This erratic account of the 250,000 boxcar boys and girls who traversed the country during the Great Depression amounts to an oral history of the seldom-studied lives of teenage hoboes. Using material gathered for a documentary film of the same title (made by Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell, the authors son and daughter-in-law), Uys draws on interviews, letters and other fragments from thousands of former rail-riders who answered an announcement in Modern Maturity magazine seeking reminiscences about their lives. A number of anecdotes offer insight into the desperation that led teens to leave impoverished homes. A sign at a Louisiana cafe, for example, stated succinctly Dishwasher WantedAonly college graduates need apply. Jobs were so scarce that one 18-year-old climbed eagerly on a locomotive in Ohio after hearing there might be work at a Los Angeles hotdog stand. The poignancy of such moments is diminished, however, because the various episodes are hitched together like random cars on a freight train and the text takes on the aimless movement of its young subjects as they drift in search of a hot meal. The most accomplished passages frame the vicissitudes of hobo life within the larger context of Depression-era politics. For many former hoboes, New Deal programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps offered the only alternative to hunger, jail and degrading hardship. Most remarkably, perhaps, this book shows how the occasional generosities encountered on the road instilled in these wanderers a lifelong ethos of humility and compassion toward others. (July) 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.