Bio

Ron Miller is recognized internationally as one of the major thinkers and activists in the emerging field of holistic education. He has written or edited eight books and authored numerous articles, chapters and book reviews. He has spoken at conferences in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, England, and Turkey.

After receiving a masters degree in humanistic psychology, Miller trained to be a Montessori educator, but after a brief teaching career he became interested in the entire range of educational alternatives and their shared critique of the cultural beliefs underlying mainstream education. He earned a Ph.D. in American Studies at Boston University, where his research led to two groundbreaking books—What Are Schools For? Holistic Education in American Culture (Holistic Education Press, 1990) and Free Schools, Free People: Education and Democracy After the 1960s (State University of New York Press, 2002). 

In 1988, Miller established an independent journal, Holistic Education Review, that began to define the scope of this emerging movement and a community of scholars and practitioners aligned with it. (The journal continues to be published, under the title Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice).

In the 1990s, Miller launched several publishing and book distribution ventures, including Holistic Education Press, the Resource Center for Redesigning Education (which published the book review periodical Great Ideas in Education), and the Foundation for Educational Renewal, which published the magazine Paths of Learning from 1999 through 2004. In 1995, Miller organized the Bellwether School near Burlington, Vermont, which has become a model for holistic educators and researchers. He was on the faculty of the Education program at Goddard College for several years, and developed a pilot program there for homeschoolers. Currently he teaches courses in American history at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. 

Throughout his career, Miller has sought to bring diverse alternative education movements into contact and collaboration. He has helped organize conferences and  meetings and done extensive editing, manuscript reviewing and advising for colleagues, researchers and graduate students. He is currently the editor of Education Revolution, the newsletter of the Alternative Education Resource Organization. In his edited volumes, including Educational Freedom for a Democratic Society (Resource Center for Redesigning Education, 1995), Creating Learning Communities (Foundation for Educational Renewal, 2000), and, with Riane Eisler, Educating for a Culture of Peace (Heinemann, 2004), Miller has brought together diverse theorists and practitioners whose ideas are on education’s leading edge.