Releasing the Imagination gives us a vivid portrait of the possibilities of human experience and education's role in its realization. It is a welcome corrective to current pressures for educational conformity."--Elliot W. Eisner, professor of education and art, Stanford UniversityRuminating on themes such as literacy, the arts and aesthetics, pluralism, multiculturalism, and the tensions and passions of caring, Greene carefully considers both the realities of hard economic times and the human requirement for expressiveness. From an account of school restructuring to a rendering of the shapes of literacy, Greene's essays examine the potential releases of imagination in a variety of contexts--in connection with the arts, and in connection with the community that, she hopes, "will some day be called democracy.