This work introduces, through story and essay, a disciplined descriptive process for understanding children's strengths as particular learners and thinkers. The descriptive review is a method of collaborative inquiry that draws on the detailed knowledge teachers and parents have of children.

This volume represents the first effort to present -- and teach -- the descriptive processes, philosophy, and values developed at the Prospect Archives and Center for Education and Research in North Bennington, Vermont. The descriptive review is a mode of inquiry that draws on the rich, detailed knowledge teachers and parents have of children and on their ability to describe those children in full and balanced ways, so that they become visible as complex persons with particular strengths, interests, and capacities.