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Învață cu inima. O educație neconvențională
Unul dintre experții mondiali în educație ne oferă o carte optimistă, în care își rememorează propriile eșecuri și succese în încercarea de a deveni un învățăcel și un profesor bun.
Tony Wagner a predat la toate nivelurile, de la liceu până la facultate, a lucrat la Harvard, a dezvoltat proiecte importante pentru Fundația Bill & Melinda Gates și ține conferințe peste tot în lume. Dar înainte să aibă succes, Wagner a fost dat afară din gimnaziu, exmatriculat din liceu și a renunțat la două facultăți. Învață cu inima este povestea impresionantă a anilor lui ca elev și profesor.
După zbuciumul prin care a trecut în ambele ipostaze, a învățat să creeze experiențe de învățare pline de sens, în pofida constrângerilor sistemului școlar convențional – inițial pentru el însuși și apoi pentru studenții săi –, pornind de la înțelegerea intereselor adevărate ale fiecărui elev și de la consolidarea factorilor săi motivaționali. Povestea lui Wagner scoate la iveală aspectele critice cu care se confruntă părinții și educatorii în zilele noastre și ne aduce aminte că încercarea și eroarea, perseverența și respectul pentru individ sunt la baza tuturor proceselor de predare și de învățare.
Tony Wagner a predat la toate nivelurile, de la liceu până la facultate, a lucrat la Harvard, a dezvoltat proiecte importante pentru Fundația Bill & Melinda Gates și ține conferințe peste tot în lume. Dar înainte să aibă succes, Wagner a fost dat afară din gimnaziu, exmatriculat din liceu și a renunțat la două facultăți. Învață cu inima este povestea impresionantă a anilor lui ca elev și profesor.
După zbuciumul prin care a trecut în ambele ipostaze, a învățat să creeze experiențe de învățare pline de sens, în pofida constrângerilor sistemului școlar convențional – inițial pentru el însuși și apoi pentru studenții săi –, pornind de la înțelegerea intereselor adevărate ale fiecărui elev și de la consolidarea factorilor săi motivaționali. Povestea lui Wagner scoate la iveală aspectele critice cu care se confruntă părinții și educatorii în zilele noastre și ne aduce aminte că încercarea și eroarea, perseverența și respectul pentru individ sunt la baza tuturor proceselor de predare și de învățare.
336 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2020
18 people are currently reading
390 people want to read
About the author
Tony Wagner
9 books89 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Tony Wagner recently accepted a position as the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Prior to this, he was the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade.
Tony consults widely to schools, districts, and foundations around the country and internationally. His previous work experience includes twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor in teacher education, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility.
Tony is also a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and a widely published author. His work includes numerous articles and five books. Tony’s latest, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World, will be published in April by Simon & Schuster. His recent book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need—and What We Can do About It has been a best seller and is being translated into Chinese. Tony’s other titles include: Change Leadership: A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools, Making the Grade: Reinventing America’s Schools, and How Schools Change: Lessons from Three Communities Revisited. He has also recently collaborated with noted filmmaker Robert Compton to create a 60 minute documentary, “The Finnish Phenomenon: Inside The World’s Most Surprising School System.”
Tony earned an M.A.T. and an Ed.D. at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Tony Wagner recently accepted a position as the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Prior to this, he was the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade.
Tony consults widely to schools, districts, and foundations around the country and internationally. His previous work experience includes twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor in teacher education, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility.
Tony is also a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and a widely published author. His work includes numerous articles and five books. Tony’s latest, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World, will be published in April by Simon & Schuster. His recent book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need—and What We Can do About It has been a best seller and is being translated into Chinese. Tony’s other titles include: Change Leadership: A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools, Making the Grade: Reinventing America’s Schools, and How Schools Change: Lessons from Three Communities Revisited. He has also recently collaborated with noted filmmaker Robert Compton to create a 60 minute documentary, “The Finnish Phenomenon: Inside The World’s Most Surprising School System.”
Tony earned an M.A.T. and an Ed.D. at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
dnf
May 20, 2025DNF at page 22.
April 7, 2020
If you are an educator, a parent, or someone who is interested in the educational process, this is a wonderful read, one of my favorites of the year so far.
The odds were stacked against Tony. His teachers told him he would be a failure but he made his own way, after getting kicked out of private schools and dropping out of two colleges before finding a unique Quaker college opportunity where he could customize his course of study. He then was able to get a Masters and later a Doctorate of Education at Harvard. He has taken to heart his struggles in the educational system and turned them to benefit others as a teacher and mentor to other teachers.
I appreciate the honesty with which he talks about his struggles, whether it's as a student in grade school or as an adult in finding a meaningful career, sometimes becoming bored as a teacher or not wanting to be a CEO in NYC. Wagner discusses ways in which the goal of a high school diploma geared for college readiness is a broken system, and instead using methods such as a "merit badge" or mastery of skills way of approaching topics, along with developing children's interests.
Other aspects of successful classrooms that he studied and put into practice were more discussion time and less lecturing from the teacher, study groups, independent study. Basically, when a person is motivated to learn, they need a teacher to act as a guide to direct them to more resources on the topic and reach mastery - including proper spelling and grammar techniques, but not through rote memorization, drilled in dry facts, or teaching to the test.
Tony Wagner relates his childhood education, both in school and out of it. His school education environment was terrible, including being labeled as a fuckup by a teacher – though he did have a couple standup teachers who encouraged him to write and develop that skill. His parents put him through strict private schools with high demands but they never reached his heart with a reason why to learn and cater to the constant tests and sport competitions. For nine months of the year, he had no childhood or free time.
Thankfully, his summers had a bright spot with an excellent summer camp where he had a couple of excellent mentors whose wisdom has stuck with him throughout his life. He also relates a couple of experiences with his dad's coworker who visited and took him fishing, something his own father never did. This man also later sent him a transistor radio kit, which Tony struggled with but succeeded in completing on his own. That sense of accomplishment also fostered an interest in how the radio worked, which he researched and learned about on his own.
He does a great job of keeping the narrative of his life and search for purpose flowing in a very readable manner. As Wagner then became a teacher, he has decades of retrospection to critique his own initial teaching styles as he developed his teaching philosophy. Even then, as he sought to find a peer community of others who had a similar interest in discussing educational philosophy, he often felt alone in his faculty peer group as he felt thrown into the deep end, unprepared for teaching and wanting in depth discussions to improve his skill. He also talks about how he learned to play guitar as an adult, and struggled to find a guitar teacher that didn't make the experience miserable, even as a motivated adult learner.
I received a free advanced review copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
The odds were stacked against Tony. His teachers told him he would be a failure but he made his own way, after getting kicked out of private schools and dropping out of two colleges before finding a unique Quaker college opportunity where he could customize his course of study. He then was able to get a Masters and later a Doctorate of Education at Harvard. He has taken to heart his struggles in the educational system and turned them to benefit others as a teacher and mentor to other teachers.
I appreciate the honesty with which he talks about his struggles, whether it's as a student in grade school or as an adult in finding a meaningful career, sometimes becoming bored as a teacher or not wanting to be a CEO in NYC. Wagner discusses ways in which the goal of a high school diploma geared for college readiness is a broken system, and instead using methods such as a "merit badge" or mastery of skills way of approaching topics, along with developing children's interests.
Other aspects of successful classrooms that he studied and put into practice were more discussion time and less lecturing from the teacher, study groups, independent study. Basically, when a person is motivated to learn, they need a teacher to act as a guide to direct them to more resources on the topic and reach mastery - including proper spelling and grammar techniques, but not through rote memorization, drilled in dry facts, or teaching to the test.
Tony Wagner relates his childhood education, both in school and out of it. His school education environment was terrible, including being labeled as a fuckup by a teacher – though he did have a couple standup teachers who encouraged him to write and develop that skill. His parents put him through strict private schools with high demands but they never reached his heart with a reason why to learn and cater to the constant tests and sport competitions. For nine months of the year, he had no childhood or free time.
Thankfully, his summers had a bright spot with an excellent summer camp where he had a couple of excellent mentors whose wisdom has stuck with him throughout his life. He also relates a couple of experiences with his dad's coworker who visited and took him fishing, something his own father never did. This man also later sent him a transistor radio kit, which Tony struggled with but succeeded in completing on his own. That sense of accomplishment also fostered an interest in how the radio worked, which he researched and learned about on his own.
He does a great job of keeping the narrative of his life and search for purpose flowing in a very readable manner. As Wagner then became a teacher, he has decades of retrospection to critique his own initial teaching styles as he developed his teaching philosophy. Even then, as he sought to find a peer community of others who had a similar interest in discussing educational philosophy, he often felt alone in his faculty peer group as he felt thrown into the deep end, unprepared for teaching and wanting in depth discussions to improve his skill. He also talks about how he learned to play guitar as an adult, and struggled to find a guitar teacher that didn't make the experience miserable, even as a motivated adult learner.
I received a free advanced review copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
February 9, 2021
Tony Wagner e un profesor pe gustul meu: el consideră că educația în forma în care există astăzi nu poate produce elevi de calitate, care să aibă simț practic și abilități care să-i pregătească pentru viață, ci este o formă de ”tortură” cu informații inutile și stil de predare monoton, cu prea multă teorie și prea puțină practică. Sigur, există multe excepții de elevi sclipitori care au utilizat toată viața integrale, fizică cuantică și chimie anorganică. Dar odată ce ai ieșit din școală, dai piept cu munca adevărată, cu șomajul, cu responsabilități familiale care nu se predau în școală, cu birocrație etc. Ei bine, Tony Wagner propune un alt fel de învățământ, unul în care elevii comunică tot timpul cu profesorii, studiază și citesc ce le place, experimentează și fac activități sociale și caritabile. (Sigur, e o discuție lungă și există argumente și contraargumente de ambele părți ale situației - profesori învechiți vs profesori inovatori, sistem prăfuit vs sistem interactiv, teste vs eseuri etc.)
Cam despre asta e vorba în acest volum, pe primul palier, și este punctul cel mai bun al acestuia. În rest, sunt memoriile autorului, interesante și exemplificative (pentru ceea ce vrea să promoveze) la început, din ce în ce mai terne spre final.
Cam despre asta e vorba în acest volum, pe primul palier, și este punctul cel mai bun al acestuia. În rest, sunt memoriile autorului, interesante și exemplificative (pentru ceea ce vrea să promoveze) la început, din ce în ce mai terne spre final.
January 18, 2021
"Știam acum că eșecul fundamental al școlii tradiționale consta în incapacitatea profesorilor mei de a mă ajuta să mă înțeleg pe mine și lumea din jur. Dar nu era vina lor. Nimeni nu le spusese că acestea sunt cele mai importante lecții pe care trebuie să le dea mai departe. Nimeni nu îi pregătise pentru o muncă atât de dificilă și de solicitantă.
Profesorii nu pot face singuri munca asta. Toți trebuie să jucăm un rol."
Profesorii nu pot face singuri munca asta. Toți trebuie să jucăm un rol."
July 5, 2021
Tony Wagner spune povestea copilului care a descoperit farmecul învățării, dar nu a suportat niciodată sistemul de învățământ. Urmărim evoluția lui în lumea educației, prin încercări, reușite și erori, iar la final începe să lucreze la procesul de vindecare colectivă a educației, prin formarea unor profesori competenți și dedicați. Cred că fiecare facilitator în educație ar trebui să citească anumite pasaje din această carte, pentru inspirație, motivație și curaj!
January 7, 2021
The author, Tony Wagner, has a doctorate in education from Harvard Graduate School of Education and has held a variety of teaching positions there over 20 years. What makes this interesting is that, similar to Tara Westover in Educated**, he didn't start out as the "success story" you picture when you imagine an Ivy League graduate's childhood. As a child, Tony Wagner did not thrive at a variety of private schools. He flunked out, dropped out, bored out of his mind, not wanting to play the game of "memorize and regurgitate" in traditional school. However, his teenage summers at Mowglis Summer Camp in New Hampshire were where he felt alive, where he found peace in nature and worked towards ribbons in axemanship or the study of Native American culture.
As a public school teacher turned homeschool parent, I am hugely interested in educational philosophy and I think Wagner has nailed the fact that students are still bored and disengaged in traditional schools. Traditional school still needs an overhaul. I appreciated the memoir and his sharing of his educational "four goals - to teach students to think critically, to communicate effectively, to work collaboratively, and to strengthen student's capacity for independent study..."
The book lost me a little bit in the middle so I found myself speeding through the ending.
Below I am sharing some quotes I don't want to forget.
- P. 41 "When I was interested in something, and given freedom and encouragement to follow that interest wherever it led, I was an eager learner. Even a good one. [My favorite teachers] conveyed a sense of caring about me as a person. 'Nobody cares how much you know,' the saying goes, ' until they know how much you care.'"
- P. 71 "[Alcott Elwell, in his educational dissertation] placed the blame squarely on the demands of the emerging college prep high school curriculum and the lecture method of teaching that it encourages. 'Schools are circumscribed by the college requirements,' he wrote, 'even to those who are not going to college at all.' Elwell believed, as do I, that a predominantly abstract academic curriculum does not prepare the majority of students for meaningful work, lifelong learning, or active and engaged citizenship. Nor does it help students to stay curious about the world or discover their deepest interests."
- P. 73 "In my own research on how best to develop young people's creative problem-solving capabilities and prepare them for the innovation era, I've explored the role of play, passion and purpose. Pursuing a purpose - whether social, artistic, or scientific - is, I've realized a form of disciplined adult play. One of the goals of education must be to encourage a new kind of play in school - opportunities to try new things and pursue interests - so that young people can discover their passion and purpose. Without the development of these intrinsic motivations for learning, education is little more than memorization and serving seat time - useless to young people as they go out into today's world."
- P. 74 (Quote from Alcott Elwell's dissertation) "Summer camps are helping break down the notion that education is mental discipline; that unless the thing is unpleasantly difficult and abstract, it is no education. It is not what we learn but what we utilize that makes up our ability, and camp is helping to create usable ability...Summer camp, instead of supplementing education, is education - just exactly as the life of the child is not preparation for life at some future time but all there is of life at the present moment."
- P. 76 "Looking back, my summers at Mowglis certainly taught me to 'look into the heart of nature.' Equally important, I now see that the camp's emphasis on earning ribbons as evidence of proficiency, along with the scouting movement's merit badge system, contributed significantly to my vision of a high school diploma for the twenty-first century. Rather than being a collection of Carnegie Units, I think a high school diploma could be a certificate of MASTERY - a collection of required and elective merit badges or ribbons that students earn by showing evidence of proficiency in essential skills and content areas."
- P. 237 "A father demanded, with a scowl, to know how I was teaching grammar. In a slightly shaky voice, I asserted that there were twenty years of research to show that teaching grammar as a separate subject did not improve writing. My method was to discuss students' written work in conference and go over the common errors I was spotting in student's work when we met as a class."
- P. 237 (as a high school English teacher at Sidwell School) "Each week, every student was responsible for bringing in five index cards with words they'd encountered in their reading that they did not know. The cards had to list the dictionary definition of the words, the sentences where they'd encountered them, and a sentence they'd composed using the word. Students then broke up into groups to share and discuss their vocabulary words of the week....I picked the idea up from Sylvia Ashton-Warner's book Teacher."
- I also want to remember the idea that he introduced (during some of his middle and high school teaching) of conferencing with his writers once every 1-2 weeks for a 30 minute period. The other periods were meant for students to independently write and read. He also assigned them to write a journal, eventually branching out into encouraging them to experiment with different types of writing - letter to the editor one week, restaurant or movie review the next.
**In Tara Westover's "Educated," her education from 5th-12th grade is working with her mother's midwifery and holistic medicine/herbology practice and her father's junk/scrap metal yard. She is neglected (and abused), yet as an adult manages to eventually earn an Ivy League graduate degree.
As a public school teacher turned homeschool parent, I am hugely interested in educational philosophy and I think Wagner has nailed the fact that students are still bored and disengaged in traditional schools. Traditional school still needs an overhaul. I appreciated the memoir and his sharing of his educational "four goals - to teach students to think critically, to communicate effectively, to work collaboratively, and to strengthen student's capacity for independent study..."
The book lost me a little bit in the middle so I found myself speeding through the ending.
Below I am sharing some quotes I don't want to forget.
- P. 41 "When I was interested in something, and given freedom and encouragement to follow that interest wherever it led, I was an eager learner. Even a good one. [My favorite teachers] conveyed a sense of caring about me as a person. 'Nobody cares how much you know,' the saying goes, ' until they know how much you care.'"
- P. 71 "[Alcott Elwell, in his educational dissertation] placed the blame squarely on the demands of the emerging college prep high school curriculum and the lecture method of teaching that it encourages. 'Schools are circumscribed by the college requirements,' he wrote, 'even to those who are not going to college at all.' Elwell believed, as do I, that a predominantly abstract academic curriculum does not prepare the majority of students for meaningful work, lifelong learning, or active and engaged citizenship. Nor does it help students to stay curious about the world or discover their deepest interests."
- P. 73 "In my own research on how best to develop young people's creative problem-solving capabilities and prepare them for the innovation era, I've explored the role of play, passion and purpose. Pursuing a purpose - whether social, artistic, or scientific - is, I've realized a form of disciplined adult play. One of the goals of education must be to encourage a new kind of play in school - opportunities to try new things and pursue interests - so that young people can discover their passion and purpose. Without the development of these intrinsic motivations for learning, education is little more than memorization and serving seat time - useless to young people as they go out into today's world."
- P. 74 (Quote from Alcott Elwell's dissertation) "Summer camps are helping break down the notion that education is mental discipline; that unless the thing is unpleasantly difficult and abstract, it is no education. It is not what we learn but what we utilize that makes up our ability, and camp is helping to create usable ability...Summer camp, instead of supplementing education, is education - just exactly as the life of the child is not preparation for life at some future time but all there is of life at the present moment."
- P. 76 "Looking back, my summers at Mowglis certainly taught me to 'look into the heart of nature.' Equally important, I now see that the camp's emphasis on earning ribbons as evidence of proficiency, along with the scouting movement's merit badge system, contributed significantly to my vision of a high school diploma for the twenty-first century. Rather than being a collection of Carnegie Units, I think a high school diploma could be a certificate of MASTERY - a collection of required and elective merit badges or ribbons that students earn by showing evidence of proficiency in essential skills and content areas."
- P. 237 "A father demanded, with a scowl, to know how I was teaching grammar. In a slightly shaky voice, I asserted that there were twenty years of research to show that teaching grammar as a separate subject did not improve writing. My method was to discuss students' written work in conference and go over the common errors I was spotting in student's work when we met as a class."
- P. 237 (as a high school English teacher at Sidwell School) "Each week, every student was responsible for bringing in five index cards with words they'd encountered in their reading that they did not know. The cards had to list the dictionary definition of the words, the sentences where they'd encountered them, and a sentence they'd composed using the word. Students then broke up into groups to share and discuss their vocabulary words of the week....I picked the idea up from Sylvia Ashton-Warner's book Teacher."
- I also want to remember the idea that he introduced (during some of his middle and high school teaching) of conferencing with his writers once every 1-2 weeks for a 30 minute period. The other periods were meant for students to independently write and read. He also assigned them to write a journal, eventually branching out into encouraging them to experiment with different types of writing - letter to the editor one week, restaurant or movie review the next.
**In Tara Westover's "Educated," her education from 5th-12th grade is working with her mother's midwifery and holistic medicine/herbology practice and her father's junk/scrap metal yard. She is neglected (and abused), yet as an adult manages to eventually earn an Ivy League graduate degree.
August 21, 2020
A really wonderful memoir! I wish he could restructure our entire education system. I was not a great student, but I do love to learn!
May 9, 2023
I liked it!
The first 2/3s of it were pretty slow, but I ended up taking some important info and lessons away from it towards the end
The first 2/3s of it were pretty slow, but I ended up taking some important info and lessons away from it towards the end
April 23, 2023
25/60 for Mama in 2020
I connected to much of the author's frustrations as a different type of learner who felt abused, neglected, and rejected by an education system that prizes compliance over individuality and numbers over learning.
I wanted to be a teacher for a long time with a similar mission as the author's: to ensure that no other student endured what I did in school. But as an adult, I made a few forays into education and found there more frustrations, more walls, more antagonism against those who thought differently, more acceptance with the status quo than interest in changing the system despite clear evidence that it served neither students nor teachers than I did as a child, which is saying a lot. Reading this book filled me with sadness at the thought that so many children are lost to an inhospitable system of education because the system is inhospitable to people who could potentially be great teachers and changemakers in education as well.
I admire the author's dedication to creating systemic change in education as a whole, but it seems that little change has actually been implemented on a widespread level, despite his fifty years on this quest. I also felt that although the author shows himself to be a caring and empathetic person, he also has racial, gender, and class biases that he has not addressed that come through in his writing and work, and for this reason, it is difficult to believe in the sincerity of his wish to truly change the system that in the end continues to serve him as an affluent white male.
I connected to much of the author's frustrations as a different type of learner who felt abused, neglected, and rejected by an education system that prizes compliance over individuality and numbers over learning.
I wanted to be a teacher for a long time with a similar mission as the author's: to ensure that no other student endured what I did in school. But as an adult, I made a few forays into education and found there more frustrations, more walls, more antagonism against those who thought differently, more acceptance with the status quo than interest in changing the system despite clear evidence that it served neither students nor teachers than I did as a child, which is saying a lot. Reading this book filled me with sadness at the thought that so many children are lost to an inhospitable system of education because the system is inhospitable to people who could potentially be great teachers and changemakers in education as well.
I admire the author's dedication to creating systemic change in education as a whole, but it seems that little change has actually been implemented on a widespread level, despite his fifty years on this quest. I also felt that although the author shows himself to be a caring and empathetic person, he also has racial, gender, and class biases that he has not addressed that come through in his writing and work, and for this reason, it is difficult to believe in the sincerity of his wish to truly change the system that in the end continues to serve him as an affluent white male.
April 28, 2020
This memoir grabbed me at the beginning, with the notion, I somehow have journeyed a similar path through pointless school experience, highlighting most of my education, like Tony Wagner's, occurred outside of school. Dr Wagner's memoir offers understanding around his own thoughts about the needed changes in education, and what he writes, consults and speaks about today. This engaging memoir is a must-read for anyone who has or is participating in education, which means almost everyone.
November 17, 2020
Learning by Heart: An Unconventional Education is Tony Wagner’s memoir of his learning journey from a misunderstood college drop-out to an exceptional teacher and education consultant.
As an educator, I felt like Wagner was writing about my learning journey. I didn’t drop out of any schools but I felt his frustration at the way schools were run and how teachers taught. He may be writing about American schools but he may as well be writing about schools in general. We are still having this debate today: School ready or ready schools? For many generations, students have to fit to the school. Students who don’t, often missed out on the opportunities that they deserve.
It is a memoir, and Wagner has written it like a journal, filled with events and reflections. Although it’s about education, one doesn’t need to be an educator to understand what he’s writing about. I enjoyed reading his experiences as an activist in the 60s and 70s, and I guess it’s like a rite of passage for youths growing up in those eras.
Learning by Heart: An Unconventional Education by Tony Wagner is a great read if you feel the need to be inspired or simply to walk down memory Lane of American history.
As an educator, I felt like Wagner was writing about my learning journey. I didn’t drop out of any schools but I felt his frustration at the way schools were run and how teachers taught. He may be writing about American schools but he may as well be writing about schools in general. We are still having this debate today: School ready or ready schools? For many generations, students have to fit to the school. Students who don’t, often missed out on the opportunities that they deserve.
It is a memoir, and Wagner has written it like a journal, filled with events and reflections. Although it’s about education, one doesn’t need to be an educator to understand what he’s writing about. I enjoyed reading his experiences as an activist in the 60s and 70s, and I guess it’s like a rite of passage for youths growing up in those eras.
Learning by Heart: An Unconventional Education by Tony Wagner is a great read if you feel the need to be inspired or simply to walk down memory Lane of American history.
October 9, 2020
Slow to warm up for sure. Wagner comes off as egocentric and woe-is-me for the first 50 pages, yet isn't that how we truly are at that age in high school and young adolescence? The writing fits the maturity and as the book progresses he "matures". Admitting failures and looking critically at motivation and decisions and evolving. It is an unconventional education and yet, a journey many are familiar with, self discovery. For those who did not have traumatizing or even unfavorable public school experience, it is illuminating to know that good is fine but better exists. And then you start in with the what ifs. What if I was cultivated in such a way to explore passions, what are even my passions!?!? As they have been smoothed out through college prerequisites and graduation requirement coursework. This book was a stepping stone to dig deeper into the foundations of education, this is a personal piece and yet gives nods to the work of others for further independent study opportunities, the very best way to learn.
August 14, 2021
Illuminating insight and meditation on the topic of education. It is funny but it did not really occur to me to think about education itself back when I was stuck in school, definitely not as deeply as explored in this book. It is sad that in many parts of the world the education systems imposed upon young people often misconceive education and learning. It is ironic this reading that has led me to think more deeply about education than ever would probably never have been suggested in school.
December 4, 2024
Some good ideas towards the end, but it doesn't reflect the reality of the financial, spacial and time constraints placed on most schools.
By far the biggest problem with the book is the author's unnecessary commentary on physical appearance, including the chest size of a former female student.
Also, even though the author talks about his passion for social justice, there's no acknowledgement of the privilege the author had in repeatedly starting and dropping out of schools.
By far the biggest problem with the book is the author's unnecessary commentary on physical appearance, including the chest size of a former female student.
Also, even though the author talks about his passion for social justice, there's no acknowledgement of the privilege the author had in repeatedly starting and dropping out of schools.
March 22, 2022
A memoir chronicling the education of one of the preeminent names in education today. What a cool way to travel through the changes and innovations (and lack thereof) in education over the last half-century. And sad - so much of what is new and needs to evolve even further in education are the same things that were new and needed to evolve further 30 and 40 years ago, early in Tony’s career.
January 7, 2024
It was a bit dry in parts, but once I got through the necessary groundwork I was absolutely caught up in the journey and reflections. It was fascinating! I will always be amazed at how broken the education "system" is (grade school to higher ed) yet how much it is pushed as the standard everyone should follow and participate in to be successful.
March 11, 2022
A wonderful memoir of Tony Wagner's educational journey. No wonder the man has so many amazing insights into the development of learning and thinking in education. A real inspiration for people looking at education and learning. A must-read for all teachers.
January 22, 2021
Enjoyed it, but feel his earlier stuff was even better. However, I’m a sucker for personal stories, so I appreciated him sharing bits of his development.
January 25, 2021
Great memoir, and Wagner's writing is still fantastic.
May 16, 2021
Destul de interesantă. O carte cu memoriile autorului, începând din copilărie, până prin anii '95.
August 11, 2021
Didn't realize it was an autobiography until pretty far in. I missed the "memoir" on the cover. It was a little interesting, but I feel like it was time wasted.
January 4, 2024
Excellent book for those who are educators- unconventional education
November 24, 2020
Thank you NetGalley and publishers for an ARC. all opinions are my own.
Learning by Heart shares Wagner's story of how he cultivated a love a learning. Not by traditional means, Wagner seeked out interest where it drew him. Where schooling was a struggle, Wagner explains how he was still able to challenge himself in learning. A mix of a biography and informational book, Wagner draws readers in with his life journey supported by facts, that our approach to learning in schools needs an overhaul.
Learning by Heart shares Wagner's story of how he cultivated a love a learning. Not by traditional means, Wagner seeked out interest where it drew him. Where schooling was a struggle, Wagner explains how he was still able to challenge himself in learning. A mix of a biography and informational book, Wagner draws readers in with his life journey supported by facts, that our approach to learning in schools needs an overhaul.
October 16, 2022
Always a reminder that learning doesn’t happen in a building.
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