The Passionate Mind of Maxine Greene provides an introduction to the life and writings of this idealistic philosopher of education, through the eyes of contemporary colleagues in the field of education. Maxine Greene advocated a rigorously intellectual but student-focused approach in her teaching of future educators. She also believed that the arts, and self-expression, should be front and center of any curriculum, and insisted upon including literature in her classes, as well as history and philosophy, when she taught educational philosophy. (152)
             Greene encouraged the future teachers that she taught to trust themselves, trust their students, and engage in intense self-exploration as well as encourage students to do the same. Greene made ample use of philosophers beyond the field of education, such as the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre's belief in human freedom and agency. "She recontextualizes educational theory by offering a phenomenology of imagination." (133) The purpose of education, Greene believed, was to enable students to create meaning in their own lives. Students must learn to ask questions about the world, and education should prepare students for real life, which for Greene meant the process of thinking critically, imaginatively, and artistically about the world.
             Teachers should be multi-lingual, in Greene's view, not simply in the sense of knowing foreign languages, but being fluent in how to approach subjects on a multidisciplinary level, bringing science, music, literature, and other areas of education to every line of inquiry. A current Greene-approved curriculum on advances in science, for example, might include the study of Brave New World, bringing in news articles for discussion on the current debate about stem cell research, as well as researching the new advances in medicine on a scientific level.
             The classroom does not simply prepare students for democracy, in Greene's view, i...