Learning by Heart
An Unconventional Education
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“A page turner. With candor and clarity, Tony Wagner tells the story of his remarkable life and, in so doing, tells the story of our education system.”
—Angela Duckworth, Founder and CEO, Character Lab, and New York Times bestselling author of Grit
One of the world's top experts on education delivers an uplifting memoir on his own personal failures and successes as he sought to become a good learner and teacher.
Tony Wagner is an eminent education specialist: he has taught at every grade level from high school through graduate school; worked at Harvard; done significant work for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and speaks across the country and all over the world. But before he found his success, Wagner was kicked out of middle school, expelled from high school, and dropped out of two colleges. Learning by Heart is his powerful account of his years as a student and teacher.
After struggling in both roles, he learned to create meaningful learning experiences despite the constraints of conventional schooling--initially for himself and then for his students--based on understanding each student's real interests and strengthening his or her intrinsic motivations. Wagner's story sheds light on critical issues facing parents and educators today, and reminds us that trial and error, resilience, and respect for the individual, are at the very heart of all teaching and learning.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this earnest memoir, Wagner (Creating Innovators) shares the school experiences that compelled him to teach high school. Wagner writes of being expelled from high school and dropping out of two colleges in the early 1960s before enrolling in the Friends World Institute, a Quaker college in Washington, D.C., where he discovered an educational setting that encouraged him to pursue his passion for writing and make connections between his studies and culture. Wagner sought out teachers who inspired him, and he discovered that learning required concentration and self-discipline. After college he began teaching, which eventually led him to various Quaker schools including the Sidwell Friends School in D.C., after which he became headmaster at Cambridge Friends School. Wagner eventually attended Harvard, where he earned a PhD in education and became a "teacher of teachers," and realized that "education fads come and reforms come and go and most are not grounded in research about how children learn best." Wagner's passionate memoir serves as blueprint for educators looking to inspire their own students.
