We Saved the Best for You

Letters of Hope, Imagination and Wisdom for 21st Century Educators

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As standardization and “accountability” have continued to increase in the 21st century, educators and scholars of education have become increasingly frustrated. Yet as frustrated as we are, it is essential that we not send to our our students, children, grandchildren the message that the past was better and they “should have been there.” Instead, we must render a clear vision of what can be. Indeed, where would we be without the vision we have been freely given to us from great scholars, philosophers, and artists, as well as our own teachers, friends, neighbors, and family? We are indebted to carry forward the legacy of these torchbearers to present and future educators.
This book is a collection of letters to 21st century educators of all age levels and content areas. It includes chapters from more than 50 contributors representing leading names in the field of education, emerging scholars of education, and gifted practitioners in schools. It has been compiled with the goal of fulfilling our responsibility to share with the next generation of educators our vision of the future, just as our predecessors and role models shared theirs with us. Informed by the past but oriented toward the future, this collection aims to inspire in present and future educators hope, wisdom and imagination for addressing the educational challenges shaped by bureaucratic, economic and cultural forces.
Authors such as Nel Noddings, Sonia Nieto, Sandy Grande, Riane Eisler, Mike Rose, William Schubert, William Reynolds, and many more speak directly to their readers, building a relationship with a scholarly backbone, and encouraging: “we saved the best for you” because “the best” is the world you will create.
Click here to see the table of contents and full list of contributors to this volume.

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Tilting at Windmills
Hope as an Ontological Need when Tilting the Machine
Pages: 1–5
Challenging Inexorability
A Journey of Critical Optimism
Pages: 7–10
Dear Comrades
Pages: 15–19
Finding Hope and Giving Thanks in “Dark Times”
Paying Dues to the Students Who Teach Us
Pages: 21–24
Spelling Hope
A Poet-Teacher’s Testimony
Pages: 25–28
Letter of Hope
The Wangari Way
Pages: 41–43
Portrait of Thinking
A Novice Cabinetmaker
By: Mike Rose
Pages: 57–60
The Tau’olunga
A Pacific Metaphor for a Caring, Critical Pedagogy
Pages: 61–64
Teachers as DJ’s
Making Music in Unlikely Spaces
Pages: 69–73
Letter to a Young Teacher
Reframing Teaching in No-Respect Times
Pages: 81–83
The Way it was, the Way it is
Challenging Romanticized Notions of the Life of Teaching
Pages: 89–94
The Most Unlikely Places
Eros and Education in the Commons
Pages: 95–98
Om Mani Padme Hum
Seeking Interdependence, Metta and Peace in the Classroom
Pages: 99–102
West’s Self-Creation
Against the Odds, Against the Grain
Pages: 103–106
Partnership Education
Nurturing Children’s Humanity
Pages: 113–118
The Perpetual Flame of Curiousity
Asking Questions, Seeking Answers, and Sustaining the Passion for Teaching
By: Ana Cruz
Pages: 119–122
You are not Alone
Radically Redefining ‘Place’ as Community
Pages: 135–139
Of Kids and Cokes
Learning from, with, and Alongside Children
Pages: 145–147
“You didn’t Connect with me”
Teaching as Radical Contemplative Practice
Pages: 149–152
Looking back on Teaching in Detroit
Believing in our Students and Ourselves
Pages: 157–159
Something from Nothing
The Writing Teacher’s Work
Pages: 165–170
Keep the Faith
Real Learning will Win in the End
Pages: 181–184
Just Keep it Real
Dewey’s Wisdom for our Classrooms
Pages: 193–197
Picture this
Written as if from Ludwig Wittgenstein
Pages: 199–202
Children are our Hope for the Future
A Letter on Behalf of Maria Montessori to 21st Century Educators
Pages: 203–206
The Best is yet to Come
Confucius’s Hope
Pages: 207–210
Pedagogy of Disobedience
Written as if from Erich Fromm
Pages: 217–220
Letter to Educators
Rethinking Educational Purpose in the History of Education
Pages: 221–225
Educational Researchers and their students
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