The Passionate Teacher: A Practical Guide PDF
Preview The Passionate Teacher: A Practical Guide
title: The Passionate Teacher : A Practical Guide author: Fried, Robert L. publisher: Beacon Press isbn10 | asin: 0807031151 print isbn13: 9780807031155 ebook isbn13: 9780807031360 language: English Teachers--United States, Teaching, subject Learning. publication date: 1995 lcc: LB1775.2.F75 1995eb ddc: 371.2/02 Teachers--United States, Teaching, subject: Learning. Page iii The Passionate Teacher A Practical Guide Robert L. Fried Page iv Beacon Press 25 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892 Beacon Press books are published under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations © 1995 by Robert L. Fried All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 99 8 7 6 Text design by Christine Taylor Composition by Wilsted & Taylor Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fried, Robert L. The passionate teacher: a practical guide / Robert L. Fried. p. cm. ISBN 0-8070-3114-3 (cloth) ISBN 0-8070-3115-1 (paper) 1. TeachersUnited States. 2. Teaching. 3. Learning. 1. Title. LB1775.2.F75 1995 37 1.2 02dc20 95-14096 CIP Page v To my wife, Pat, with love Page vii CONTENTS Foreword ix by Deborah Meier Prelude: The Art of Engaging Young Minds 1 Part One: The Passion 1. Passionate Teaching 11 2. The Context of Passion 30 3. A Passion for Content 51 4. Designing a Unit 70 Part Two: The Game 5. The Greatest Obstacle We Face 91 6. Opening Up the Dialogue 106 7. More Ways to Change the Game of School 119 Part Three: The Stance 8. Discovering a Stance 133 9. How a Stance Evolves 148 10. Putting Your Stance into Practice 160 11. Some Thoughts About Classroom Discipline 176 Page viii Part Four: The Student 12. A Passion for Excellence 189 13. The Practice of Excellence 197 14. The Parent's Perspective: 216 What Is My Kid Actually Learning? Part Five: The Course 15. Dissecting the Courseand Resurrecting It 229 16. Rounding Out the Course 243 17. Grading for Excellence 254 18. What to Do Next Monday 268 Acknowledgments 277 Page ix FOREWORD Deborah Meier I remember the first draft of this book I received in the mail. I dutifully began a quick read, because I knew and respected its author, and figured it would be of interestalthough I was longing instead to get into the garden. I had a hard time stopping. I rushed to the telephone to tell Rob he had to hurry up and get it published because I wanted every teacher I worked with to have it in their handson Monday morning past. I still feel the same way. I know it is customary these days to tell teachers (and parents, and administrators, and district staff) to go away for a day and get themselves a "vision" or a "mission," no less. We're living in an age of inflated rhetoric, as though missions and visions were the result of deliberative processes, consensus arrangements, and a good agenda. Rob Fried makes it clear that they develop out of our lives; they take time to articulate and shape, but the wellspring can't be "managed'' or mandated. Passionate teaching of the kind described in this book is the work of learned craftsmanship. And it's made up of details. Having a wonderful idea is only the start. It is in translating passion into a craft that good teaching emerges. This is an account of why it makes such a difference and how such craftsmanship gets shaped over time. It's a book filled with details, Page x the actual stories, the tradeoffs and compromises, the breakthroughs that make it worthwhile. It's my ideal of a "how-to" book. The only kind of school reform that can make a lasting difference is reform that helps create genuine learning communitieswhere adults are able to practice in real life what it is that we want children to care aboutreasoned argument, independent investigation, initiative, experiment, getting to the heart of things, acting on ideas. Until children are surrounded by an adult community that presents an attractive model of what all this "intellectual" stuff is about, we are wasting our time. That model of intellectual engagement is what passionate teaching is all about. Passionate teaching is not a luxury, a frill we can do without. We can't afford to keep sending kids to schools that disrespect the qualities of heart and mind we claim to be promoting. It's like wanting kids to be musicians even though they never actually hear any music or see an expert musician at workthey are just "told" about it. That's what we've done to our children. We've cut them off from the "real stuff" for twelve long years, then bemoaned their lack of enthusiasm, and proposed to substitute direr and direr penalties for failure in lieu of more and more reasons to aspire for excellence. Passionate teaching is do-able. It doesn't require exceptional teachers, although it won't be found aplenty until we change schools so that adults as well as children recapture their nascent passions. We've all got them. They've gotten buried. Until we treat these passions as though they are not an embarrassment but an asset in the job of rearing the next generation, the kinds of stories and successes you will read about in this book will remain exceptions. Admired but not widely practiced. That's the challenge before us. Read on.
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