Today, Maxine Greene’s work is broadly recognized as groundbreaking in the field of education. But in 1963, the year Greene was hired as the first woman philosopher at Teachers College, Columbia University, she faced daunting hurdles. Greene persevered through professional insults such as having to wait in the women’s restroom to be interviewed because the Faculty Club allowed only men. As a Jew, she was often excluded from many circles that were kept homogeneous by a white, male, Protestant society. As the mother of two children, Greene faced a world hostile to women who wanted a family and a profession. Greene is a preeminent intellectual acknowledged internationally as an original thinker in the world of education. But as she says in the film, “My story is the story of many women’s lives.” It is a story of how one woman makes meaning of her life in spite of the personal tragedies and social obstacles that all of us struggle to overcome.

Featuring: Maxine Greene, Wendy Kohli, R. Freeman Butts and Rosalind Rosenberg.