Teaching with Heart: Poetry That Speaks to the Courage to Teach

I wish I could afford to buy copies of Teaching with Heart for all the teachers I have interviewed in my forty years of reporting. My budget can't handle that. Instead, I recommend that all of us non-teachers buy copies of this inspiring book for teachers we know. You will probably want one for yourself, too. --JOHN MERROW, Education Correspondent, PBS NewsHour; President, Learning Matters, Inc.Teaching with Heart is the rarest kind of book: one that actually does justice to the full range of emotion and skill teaching requires. It provides a personal and powerful antidote to the caricatures and misperceptions we often see in the headlines or popular culture, and it speaks to the heart of the teaching experience. --WENDY KOPP, Founder, Teach For America; CEO, Teach For AllAlthough we understand that teaching is an intellectual activity, we also understand that it is a moral activity. To do it well, great teachers engage both the mind and the heart. Teaching with Heart describes that wonderful combination of the heart and mind. --GLORIA LADSON-BILLINGS, Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education, University of Wisconsin-MadisonIn this exhilarating collection, ninety teachers use poetry to illustrate the ups, downs, joys, frustrations, and, ultimately, the redeeming value of both teaching and poetry. In spite of the increasing demands, the disrespect, and the appalling conditions, these teachers, and millions of others, practice their craft with courage, hope, and love. This book will be a bedside companion to teachers who need to know they are our nation's unsung treasure, as well as a wake-up call to the nation about the value of its teachers. --SONIA NIETO, professor emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst