Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom

by William Ayers

Overview

In Teaching toward Freedom, William Ayers illuminates the hope as well as the conflict that characterizes the craft of education: how it can be used in authoritarian ways at the service of the state, the church, or a restrictive existing social order-or, as he envisions it, as a way for students to become more fully human, more engaged, more participatory, more free. Using examples from his own classroom experiences as well as from popular culture, film, and novels, Ayers redraws the lines concerning how we teach, why we teach, and the surprising things we uncover when we allow students to become visible, vocal authors of their own lives and stories. This lucid and inspiring book will help teachers at every level to realize that ideal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807032664
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	09/10/2004
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	735,863
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

 William Ayers is Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the founder of the Small Schools Workshop and the Center for Youth and Society, and he is the author of many books on education, including Teaching the Personal and Political, On the Side of the Child, To Teach, A Simple Justice, and A Kind and Just Parent.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
1	Between Heaven and Earth: What is Teaching For?	1
2	Turning toward the Student: Who in the World am I?	30
3	Building a Republic of Many Voices: Where is My Place in the World?	67
4	Lifting the Weight of the World: What are My Choices?	103
5	Teaching toward Freedom	137
	Acknowledgments	163
	Credits	167

Editorial Reviews

"What am I teaching for? And what am I teaching against?" These are the fundamental questions that Ayers (education, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago) explores in this collection of essays on the moral dimension of teaching, originally delivered as a series of lectures during the author's fall 2003 stint as a visiting scholar at Lesley University. Throughout, Ayers returns to his commitment to education as activism and to the importance of teachers standing "on the side of the student." Drawing, as in earlier works, on his experience in the Civil Rights Movement and the antiwar movement of the 1960s, Ayers deftly melds his own experiences as a teacher with those of like-minded colleagues, as well as with evocative lessons about education and humanity drawn from the work of authors including Pablo Neruda, Malcolm X, and Myles Horton. Likely to be as popular as the author's earlier To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, this collection is recommended for any academic library. Scott Walter, Univ. of Kansas Libs., Lawrence Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Teaching toward Freedom is powerful, thought-provoking, and a must-read for everyone concerned with the state of education.—Deborah Donovan, Booklist

[Ayers] makes the case that larger society needs to understand what it means to teach toward freedom. . . .Ayers's model asks that students imagine different future worlds where justice is better served and where we create a vision needed for a better world."—Lee Baker, Altar Magazine

"Five thoughtful essays that examine how teachers need to value their students, challenge themselves, and teach for freedom."—Bob Peterson, Rethinking Schools

Praise for A Kind and Just Parent:

"William Ayers is as sensitive and gifted a chronicler as he is a teacher."—Studs Terkel, author of Hope Dies Last and Working

From the Publisher