Teaching with Conscience in an Imperfect World: An Invitation

William Ayers

Apr 2016 · Teachers College Press

About this ebook

How do we see our schools and the project of education? Is this the best we can do? What would we like our schools to become? How might we get there? In this provocative book, Bill Ayers invites us to dream of schools in which each child “is of infinite and incalculable value.” Blending personal anecdotes with critique of the state of education, this beautifully written little book is filled with big ideas that explore the challenges and opportunities for an education system that desperately needs repair. Teaching with Conscience in an Imperfect World is an urgent call to action and a plan to help educators, policymakers, and parents to stretch toward something new and dramatically better—schools that are more joyful and more just, more balanced and more guided by the power of love.

Book Features:

Designed to promote meaningful discussions in teacher education courses. Addresses the problems with our current education system and how they came to be. Advocates, with illustrations, for schooling that promotes critical thinking and engaged learning. Critiques school reform efforts, such as high-stakes testing, curriculum standardization, and dated performance metrics. Urges teachers to see students as full and equal human beings with agency and capacity.

“Bill Ayers invites you to imagine teaching in ways that make a difference; ways that brings smiles and successful learning to students and joyous fulfillment to teachers.”
—Carl Grant, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“Bill Ayers reveals the questions educators of conscience ask themselves in their quiet time.”
—David Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago

“This book is for every classroom teacher who is challenged by what they fear is a dark time for public schools in America.”
—Fred Klonsky, education blogger