Today is Teacher Appreciation Day. Read (or give away) a book about teachers and students:
Tom Brown’s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes. The fictional story of a boy, Tom Brown, who attends Rugby, the famous boys’ prep school that was run by headmaster Dr. Thomas Arnold (father of poet Matthew Arnold) is based on the author’s own schooldays at Rugby. Dr. Arnold was one of the foremost British educators of all time, and he made Rugby a leading school for boys in England on par with Eton and other elite schools. This book is very old-fashioned, almost Dickensian, so if you enjoy reading fiction written and set in the nineteenth century, you might like it. I did.
The Marva Collins Way by Marva Collins. I read this book about a Chicago teacher who started her own private preparatory school a long time ago, before I started homeschooling. I remember being quite impressed with Ms. Collins’ approach to teaching children. Two quotes I wrote down in my notebook at the time:
“Moreover, it is a mistake to assume that in order to stimulate creativity and critical thinking you must rule out any learning by rote. Memorization is the only way to teach such things as phonics, grammar, spelling, and multiplication tables.”
“The best training a teacher can have is a solid liberal arts education. Instead of emphasizing methods courses, training institutions should require education majors to have a broad background in literature, science, art, music, and philosophy. The object of teaching is to impart as much knowledge as possible. Students can only give back what a teacher gives out.”
Lovey: A Very Special Child and Turnabout Children by Mary MacCracken. I read these books about a special ed teacher and her students a long time ago. Krakovianka writes about the books from a more recent perspective.
The Well-Trained Mind and The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. Excellent help for beginning teachers and homeschoolers. Just don’t become overwhelmed by all the information and expectations that Ms. Bauer includes. Take it easy, take what works, leave the rest.
What teacher books have you found helpful, either as a homeschool mom or as a schoolteacher? Leave a note in the comments, with a link to your review if you have one, and I’ll add your favorites to the list.