Iconoclast


Book Description

Abraham Flexner was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century American education. This biography demonstrates his pervasive influence on education, from his early work in experimental primary schools to the founding of the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.




Medical Education


Book Description




The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge


Book Description

A short, provocative book about why "useless" science often leads to humanity's greatest technological breakthroughs A forty-year tightening of funding for scientific research has meant that resources are increasingly directed toward applied or practical outcomes, with the intent of creating products of immediate value. In such a scenario, it makes sense to focus on the most identifiable and urgent problems, right? Actually, it doesn't. In his classic essay "The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge," Abraham Flexner, the founding director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the man who helped bring Albert Einstein to the United States, describes a great paradox of scientific research. The search for answers to deep questions, motivated solely by curiosity and without concern for applications, often leads not only to the greatest scientific discoveries but also to the most revolutionary technological breakthroughs. In short, no quantum mechanics, no computer chips. This brief book includes Flexner's timeless 1939 essay alongside a new companion essay by Robbert Dijkgraaf, the Institute's current director, in which he shows that Flexner's defense of the value of "the unobstructed pursuit of useless knowledge" may be even more relevant today than it was in the early twentieth century. Dijkgraaf describes how basic research has led to major transformations in the past century and explains why it is an essential precondition of innovation and the first step in social and cultural change. He makes the case that society can achieve deeper understanding and practical progress today and tomorrow only by truly valuing and substantially funding the curiosity-driven "pursuit of useless knowledge" in both the sciences and the humanities.




Medical Education in the United States and Canada


Book Description

A landmark work which precipitated major reforms in medical education. It recommended closing commercial schools and reducing the overall number of medical schools from 155 to 31, with the aim of raising standards. Includes frank evaluative sketches of each school based on site visits by the author.




Abraham Flexner


Book Description

When Abraham Flexner died in 1959 at age 92, a New York Times obituary declared, "no other American of his time contributed more to the welfare of his country and of humanity in general." Flexner's famous Report in 1910 and his subsequent work at the Rockefeller Foundation helped transform American medical education from crude to world leader. Later, as founding director of the Institute for Advanced Study he attracted Albert Einstein and other luminaries to Princeton. Notwithstanding these achievements, Flexner was hypercritical of others, often abrasive, and his self-assurance irritated many of his colleagues to his detriment. Moreover, he was an intellectual elitist who, like many of his generation, either denied or ignored certain moral hazards prevalent in America during his lifetime, including eugenics theory and institutional anti-Semitism. In this critical analysis, Dr. Nevins distinguishes between Flexner the progressive reformer and the humanly-flawed man himself.




A Modern School (Classic Reprint)


Book Description

Excerpt from A Modern School For convenience sake, the four large fields of activity have been separately discussed. But it must be pointed out that the failure of the traditional school to make cross connections is an additional unreality. The traditional school teaches composition in the English classes; quantitative work, in the mathematics classes; history, literature, and so on each in its appropriate division. Efiorts are indeed making to overcome this separateness but they have gone only a little way. The Modern School would from the first undertake the cultivation of contacts and cross-connections. Every exercise would be a spelling lesson; science, industry, and mathematics would be inseparable; science, industry, history, civics, literature, and geography would to some extent utilize the same material. These suggestions are in themselves not new and not wholly untried. What is lacking is a consistent, thorough going, and fearless embodiment. For even the teachers who believe in modern education are so situated that either they cannot act, or they act under limitations that are fatal to effective effort. In speaking of the course of study, I have dwelt wholly on con tent. Unquestionably, however, a curriculum, revolutionized in content, will be presented by methods altered to suit the spirit and aim of the instruction. For children will not be taught merely in order that they may know or be able to do certain things that they do not now know and cannot now do, but material will be presented to them in ways that promote their proper development and growth - individually and socially. For education is not only a matter of what people can do, but also of what they are. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.




The American College


Book Description




Prostitution in Europe


Book Description

Prostitution in Europe by Abraham Flexner, first published in 1969, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.




Is Social Work a Profession?


Book Description

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.




Questioning the Premedical Paradigm


Book Description

This book raises fundamental questions about the propriety of continuing to use a premedical curriculum developed more than a century ago to select students for training as future physicians for the twenty-first century. In it, Dr. Donald A. Barr examines the historical origins, evolution, and current state of premedical education in the United States. One hundred years ago, Abraham Flexner's report on Medical Education in the United States and Canada helped establish the modern paradigm of premedical and medical education. Barr’s research finds the system of premedical education that evolved to be a poor predictor of subsequent clinical competency and professional excellence, while simultaneously discouraging many students from underrepresented minority groups or economically disadvantaged backgrounds from pursuing a career as a physician. Analyzing more than fifty years of research, Barr shows that many of the best prospects are not being admitted to medical schools, with long-term adverse consequences for the U.S. medical profession. The root of the problem, Barr argues, is the premedical curriculum—which overemphasizes biology, chemistry, and physics by teaching them as separate, discrete subjects. In proposing a fundamental restructuring of premedical education, Barr makes the case for parallel tracks of undergraduate science education: one that would largely retain the current system; and a second that would integrate the life sciences in a problem-based, collaborative learning pedagogy. Barr argues that the new, integrated curriculum will encourage greater educational and social diversity among premedical candidates without weakening the quality of the education. He includes an evaluative research framework to judge the outcome of such a restructured system. This historical and cultural analysis of premedical education in the United States is the crucial first step in questioning the appropriateness of continuing a hundred-year-old, empirically dubious pedagogical model for the twenty-first century.