Available soon to download: Amazon | Audiobooks | Barnes & Noble | Libro.fm
A revised edition of The Passionate Teacher, this is a must-read for every educator and future educator wanting and ready to invest wholeheartedly in shaping young minds
Passion is not just a personality trait that some people have and others lack, but rather something discoverable, teachable, and reproducible
First published more than a quarter century ago, Teaching in Troubled Times is a hopeful guide to passionate teaching, drawing on the voices, stories, and success of teachers in urban, suburban, and rural classrooms. These ideas, and the stories of the inspiring teachers who embodied them, are as vivid and pertinent today as they were in 1995. But so much has changed.
As American politics are swept up in antagonism, division, and what appears to be a rebellion by vast swaths of the population against science, knowledge, reason, and truth—all of which can manifest as being against education—this revised edition seeks to address the new problems, opportunities, and conditions that have shaped education today: post-Covid learning, teaching history and social science without fear, encouraging kindness and anti-bullying in today’s classrooms, new technologies in classrooms, and more.
The 3 pillars of the original edition: The Passion; The Stance; and The Game of School remain at the core of the book, now with 5 new chapters, including the voices of Teachers of the Year like Joshua Chard from Maine and De’Shawn Washington from Massachusetts.
Written in a non-jargon, down-to-earth style, Passionate Teaching in Troubled Times is what new and veteran teachers, and those who hire and mentor them, are looking for. With new material, this book offers the wisdom of teachers who daily employ their skills, their knowledge, their experience, and above all their devotion to every student in their path.
“This is the one book every teacher must have.”
—Deborah Meier, MacArthur Award–winning educator, reformer, and author
“I’ve loved The Passionate Teacher and recommended it for years. This new edition greatly enhances the book for today’s educators, laypeople, and students because it underscores a simple truth about learning: Learn what you love and you will learn to love learning. The genius of the teachers and students highlighted in Passionate Teaching in Troubled Times is their ability to make the connections that ignite that passion. Most of all, this book should be required reading for all educators at every level and for those considering joining the profession.”
—Gregory Prince, president emeritus of Hampshire College
“When books are pulled from shelves, teachers are told what they cannot say, and public education itself is under siege, Robert Fried offers an eloquent lifeline. Drawing on thirty years of classroom wisdom and the voices of today’s most inspiring teachers, he makes a quietly radical argument: A teacher’s passion for students and honest inquiry is not just good pedagogy. It is an act of resistance. A must-read for anyone who cares about education.”
—Tony Wagner, best-selling author and senior research fellow, Learning Policy Institute
“The Passionate Teacher is an indispensable book for educators at all levels and has been a central feature of our new teacher reading list for many years. This new edition addresses vital issues facing educators, recognizing the mounting complexities that teachers face while retaining the inspiring vision of teaching that made the original so powerful.”
—Page Tompkins, president of the Upper Valley Educators Institute