In more than forty books on subjects ranging from social justice to mathematics, morality to parenthood, Herb Kohl has earned a place as one of our foremost “educators who write.” With Marian Wright Edelman, Mike Rose, Lisa Delpit, and Vivian Paley among his fans, Kohl is “one of only a handful of writers,” as William Ayers says in his introduction, “to have had a serious impact on the practice of education over the past four decades.” Now, for the first time, readers can find collected in one place key essays and excerpts spanning the whole of Kohl’s career, including practical as well as theoretical writings. Selections come from Kohl’s classic 36 Children, his National Book Award-winning The View from the Oak (co-authored with his wife Judy), and all his best known and beloved books. The Herb Kohl Reader is destined to become a major new resource for old fans and a new generation of teachers and parents.

"I won't learn from you" is Herb Kohl's now-classic essay about the phenomenon of "not-learning", or refusing to learn, which takes place when a student's intelligence, dignity, or integrity is compromised by a teacher, an institution, or a larger social mindset. Available in book form for the first time, "I Won't Learn from You" serves here as a starting point for four new, groundbreaking essays by one of the country's leading thinkers on education. "The Tattooed Man: Confessions of a Hopemonger" is about the importance of teaching hope, and is Kohl's first autobiographical effort to discover in his own ghettoized childhood attitudes that let him recognize "not-learning" when he saw it among his students decades later. "Creative Maladjustment and the Struggle for Public Education" is inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s call for creative maladjustment to an unjust society, and deals with the ways in which one can lead a positive life and learn new ways of maintaining opposition and resistance. "Excellence, Equality, and Equity" explores the relationship between these three crucial - and often confused - concepts. "Uncommon Differences" is about the way in which notions such as political correctness have been used to distract us from the central concerns of public education, including educating the poor, developing cultural diversity within the schools, and undoing the stigmatization of students who do not conform. It is about what public education in America can become. Written in Kohl's hallmark conversational style and employing the case examples that make his writing so compelling, these essays are at the forefront of current thinking on urban education.

In "provocative and entertaining essays [that] will appeal to reflective readers, parents, and educators" (Library Journal), one of the country's foremost education writers looks at the stories we tell our children. Available now in a revised edition, including a new essay on the importance of "stoop-sitting" and storytelling, Should We Burn Babar? challenges some of the chestnuts of children's literature. Highlighting instances of racism, sexism, and condescension that detract from the tales being told, Kohl provides strategies for detecting bias in stories written for young people and suggests ways to teach kids to think critically about what they read. Beginning with the title essay on Babar the elephant--"just one of a fine series of inquiries into the power children's books have to shape cultural attitudes," according to Elliott Bay Booknotes--the book includes essays on Pinocchio, the history of progressive education, and a call for the writing of more radical children's literature. As the Hungry Mind Review concluded, "Kohl's prescriptions for renewing our schools through the use of stories and storytelling are impassioned, well-reasoned, and readable."

Evaluates the ways in which the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott is misrepresented to children.

Herbert Kohl, one of America's most influential and provocative educators, believes that the only way to persist and to grow as a teacher is to commit oneself to the development of the child rather than to the regimented training of the pupil. His book is a lively, personal testament of one teacher's efforts to cultivate the natural vitality of the learning process; it is also a wondefully concrete and practical guide full of stories of individual students and how they were helped to grow through learning.

Reading, How To is Herbert Kohl's answer to the phonics versus whole language debate and to other false dichotomies and unhelpful mandates that characterize much of our talk about reading instruction. Kohl boldly insists that "there is no reading problem. Most people who fail to learn how to read in our society are victims of a fiercely competitive system of training that requires failure." Kohl believes instead that "anyone who reads with a certain degree of competency can help others who read less well." With this simple yet radical thought, Kohl lets us know that things don't have to be as hard as we imagine. The materials for learning, and for helping others learn, are abundant, not scarce.

A collection of essays explore the educator's views on teaching, learning, and the value of public education, includes thoughts on learning refusal, and the value of optimism

Both a theoretical and practical study, Gypsy Academics and Mother-Teachers not only theorizes the relationship between gender and contingent labor in writing programs; it also offers administrators, theorists, and practitioners strategies for improving the working conditions and professional status of contingent writing faculty, the majority of whom are women.

Describes the author's experiences with a group of young children as they shared a class in Chinese landscape painting, discussing what he learned from the youngsters and the wisdom he discovered in the art's formal tenets.

A memoir of the successes, failures, and excitement of 21 years of teaching.