Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom - Softcover

Rick Ayers; William Ayers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807751529 ISBN 13: 9780807751527

Publisher: Teachers College Pr, 2011

Synopsis

''Drawing from a lifetime of deep thinking about education and courageous commitment to precious students, Rick and William Ayers have given us a marvelous book. Their devastating critique of the pervasive market models in education and their powerful defense of democratic forms of imagination in schools are so badly needed in our present day crisis!'' -- Cornel West, Princeton University
''Teaching the Taboo is provocative, challenging, funny in places, wild enough and sensible enough to be useful, inspiring, and practical for educators who are working to negate the educational madness that is infecting the schools.'' -- Herb Kohl, author of 36 Children and Painting Chinese
''Like all good teachers, the Ayers brothers challenge us to enter and engage our deepest, darkest questions and/or concerns in the classroom. In the end, the best thing we can do as critical educators is to teach that which is TABOO!'' -- David Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago
''Don't be mistaken -- what counts as 'taboo' is often the very thing that must be addressed for change to occur, as brilliantly illustrated in this new book by Richard and William Ayers.'' -- Kevin Kumashiro, founding director of the Center for Anti-Oppressive Education and author of The Seduction of Common Sense
Education at its best is about opening doors, opening minds, and inviting students to become powerful choice-makers as they forge their own pathways into a wider world. While many teachers long for teaching to be something transcendent and powerful, they all too often find themselves teaching obedience and conformity. This dynamic book -- by two renowned educators -- is filled with classroom stories of everyday teachers grappling with many of today's hotly debated issues. These stories of courage and resistance will help today's teachers confront the cynicism and demoralization that has gripped the profession in this age of standardization and testing. It will help teachers to teach initiative, to teach imagination, to ''teach the taboo.'' This is a hands-on manual for anyone looking to evolve as an educator.

About this title

About the Author

Rick Ayers is a university instructor and founder of the Communication and Arts School at Berkeley High School. William Ayers is a school reform activist, distinguished professor, and senior university scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Review

''For those frustrated by the thrust of educational 'reform'...this book provides what can be described as both a challenge and a set of alternatives. It is a challenge because it looks at education, teaching and schools in a way quite different from that which dominates our public discourse about these subjects. The authors are not particularly concerned with test scores, obsession with which has been driving our education policy. They are, to put it bluntly, dismissive of such an approach...The brothers Ayers are advocating an educational approach...that includes the voices and perspectives of students as having value and importance, that seeks to broaden the universe of materials from which they learn, including from cultures other than the dominant ones, thus taking advantage of the richness of cultural diversity that is an ever-increasing part of the fabric of our nation and society.'' --Education Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Teachers College Pr
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0807751529
• ISBN 13: 9780807751527
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 132