Table Of Contenttitle: 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.
Description:Every teacher could be a passionate teacher—one who engages young people in the excitement of learning and ideas—if teaching were not being undermined by the ways we "do business" in schools. The Passionate Teacher draws on the voices, stories, and success of teachers in urban, suburban, and rur
