Teach Like a Human: Essays for Parents and Teachers

Teach Like a Human: Essays for Parents and Teachers is a collection of essays focused on educating children to care about themselves, their communities, and the world we are privileged to share. Written for parents and teachers, the book highlights the importance of listening, caring, communicating, discerning, and managing relationships effectively. The author draws on principles from organizational theory, curriculum study, and arts education, to encourage mindful reflection about educational practices and policies in pursuit of education for life. Standards based teaching strategies with its culture of testing will never solve the problem of teaching all children according to their needs. Physical, social, and emotional health are each important aspects of human development and children need strong relationships, positive role models, good friends, and high expectations from people who care about them. It truly all matters. Peppered with humor, metaphor and narrative, this book illuminates how educators, both parents and teachers, can galvanize experiences to deepen character, insight, empathy and joy in the people and things around us. To teach like a human means to teach with consciousness of what it means to be human, by focusing on qualitative aspects of life with sensitivity and strategy.