To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher

by William Ayers

Overview

To Teach is the now-classic story of one teacher’s odyssey into the ethical and intellectual heart of teaching. For almost two decades, it has inspired teachers across the country to follow their own paths, face their own challenges, and become the teachers they long to be. Since the second edition, there have been dramatic shifts to the educational landscape: the rise and fall of NCLB, major federal intervention in education, the Seattle and Louisville Supreme Court decisions, the unprecedented involvement of philanthropic organizations and big city mayors in school reform, the financial crisis, and much more. This new third edition is essential reading amidst today’s public policy debates and school reform initiatives that stress the importance of “good teaching.”

To help bring this popular story to a new generation of teachers, Teachers College Press is publishing an exciting companion volume, To Teach: The Journey, in Comics. In this graphic novel, Ayers and talented young artist Ryan Alexander-Tanner bring the celebrated memoir to life. The third edition of To Teach, paired with the new graphic novel, offers a unique teaching and learning experience that broadens and deepens our understanding of what teaching can be. Together, these resources will capture the imaginations of pre- and in-service teachers who are ready to follow their own Yellow Brick Roads.

The third edition of To Teach offers today’s teachers:

• Inspiration to help them reconnect with their highest aspirations and hopes.
• A practical guide to teaching as a moral practice.
• An antidote to teaching as a linear, connect-the-dots enterprise.
• A study guide that is available online at www.tcpress.com.

Praise for the Second Edition!

"An imaginative, elegant, and inspiring book…essential reading for anyone who believes that teachers can change lives." —Michèle Foster, Claremont Graduate University

“ To Teach is one of the few books about teaching that does not disappoint.” —From the Foreword by Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“William Ayers creates a wise and beautiful account of what teaching is and might be….He leaves us with fresh awareness of what the teaching project signifies. He provokes us, each in our own fashion, to move further in our own quests.” —Maxine Greene, Teachers College, Columbia University

“No one since John Holt has written so thoughtfully about the things that actually happen in the classroom. Ayers has been there and he knows, and he shares what he has learned with tremendous sensitivity. The book, I’m sure, will be required reading in every school in the nation.” —Jonathan Kozol

“Bill Ayers speaks as teacher, parent, and student: as compassionate observer and passionate advocate of his three sons and of all of our children. What is unique is the way in which the personal and professional merge seamlessly. . . . Ayers is a wonderful story teller.” —Herbert Kohl

“Ayers’ riveting description of his unfolding journey as a teacher will be a helpful guide to teachers at all stages of their careers.” —Teaching Education

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807750636
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	04/05/2010
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

William Ayers is Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (retired), education activist, and bestselling author of Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom (with Rick Ayers), To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, Third Edition, and To Teach: The Journey, in Comics (with Ryan Alexander-Tanner).

Table of Contents

Foreword Sonia Nieto ix

Preface xi

Introduction 1

1 Beginning: The Challenge of Teaching 13

2 Seeing the Student 38

3 Creating an Environment for Learning 61

4 Building Bridges 77

5 Liberating the Curriculum 98

6 Keeping Track 122

7 Working in the Gap: The Mystery of Teaching 135

8 Beginning Again: If I Only Had a Home 152

Afterword Mike Rose 167

Further Readings 171

References 174

Index 176

About the Author 179

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The latest edition of Bill Ayers’ timeless classic, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, is more necessary than ever. I wish I had this book when I first entered the classroom—something to ground me, support me, and guide me through the uncertainties and challenges of teaching. . . . Ayers has a remarkable way of making the realities of teaching clear while still maintaining an unwavering faith in the transformative power of education.”
—From the Foreword by Bettina L. Love, William F. Russell Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University

“With so many attacks and reform initiatives today (to defund, censor, demonize, technologize) fundamentally transforming and restricting what is and can be ‘teaching,’ we need Bill Ayers’s nuanced and prophetic storytelling more than ever. For 30 years, teachers and teacher educators have been reading and rereading To Teach, partly for the vivid portraits of his own joys and struggles that are both cautionary and inspiring, but more for the fundamental contradictions and dialectics of education that he invites us to dive into—and that he shows as still relevant with updates throughout this Fourth Edition. Read or re-read today!”
—Kevin Kumashiro, scholar, educator, leader, advocate, and author of Surrendered: Why Progressives are Losing the Biggest Battles in Education

"Now more than ever, Bill Ayers's To Teach is the light we need in deeply divided times. His work provides a grounded and inspiring conversation, offering hope and perspective during what may be the most challenging time for teachers in nearly 80 years. Both his insights and encouragement are essential in this mess of a moment we're in."
—David Stovall, professor of criminology, law, and justice, University of Illinois Chicago

“This timely new edition of To Teach reminds us of the liberatory possibilities of education, at a time when teaching the truth and the very idea of the right to a free high-quality public education are under attack. Drawing on his nearly 60 years as an educator, Ayers teaches us how to teach and be in relationship with each other with care and compassion—important lessons for life.”
—Elizabeth S. Todd-Breland, associate professor, University of Illinois Chicago

“Bill’s To Teach dissects the power dynamics of the classroom, the pervasiveness of race and class in these spaces of learning, and the need to build solidarity with learners.”
—From the Afterword by Adam Bush, president, College Unbound

Editorial Reviews

Ayers’ riveting description of his unfolding journey as a teacher will be a helpful guide to teachers at all stages of their careers.”

— Teaching Education (of previous edition)

From the Publisher