This book is full of excerpts from little- and well-known books with a soulful commentary behind each one. Characters from The Elephant's Child to Helen Keller learn more about themselves and their surroundings in bits and pieces that might help you to learn a bit more about yourself and your surroundings. Great for family readings or just to yourself or your child. Is also a nice chunky book to hold up bookshelves, if nothing else

Above all, Herbert Kohn, teacher extraordinary, says we must listen to children so we can discover how to teach them. Then, he lays a heavy one on us: ALL children can learn. And he takes us with him so we can watch him do it. In schoolrooms, homes, churches, public areas, from East coast to West coast and back again -- wherever the learners are. He lets us see why top-down public education policy is not the best way. We haven't asked the teachers who know -- and can figure out if they are allowed to do so -- how to do this thing called teaching. And never does he separate teaching and learning. They work together. Readers get to see some of the special projects Kohl has worked on and hear some of the students who have learned with him. He has done some amazing work but tells about it in such a way that it seems possible to the rest of us, whether teachers, learners, parents, or taxpayers.

This Italian classic is a marvelous exploration of the worlds of creativity and imagination. The author's profound understanding of the child's unspoiled imagination shines through these collected reflections on the art of inventing stories. The book includes dozens of exercises designed to inspire the creation of stories and, ultimately, to foster a love for language and storytelling. Rodari shows teachers how to stir young imaginations by building on simple words, phrases, and rhymes; juxtaposing seemingly unrelated words and images; creating "what if" scenarios; rewriting popular folk tales; speculating on "what happens next"; using toys and puppets as props; drawing comic books; and so on. Analyzing the essential nature of stories, jokes, riddles, and poetry, Rodari delves deep into the mysterious heart of the creative process and vividly illuminates it for the reader. This book is a must-read for teachers of literature and for anyone who has ever marveled at the art of the storyteller.

In the 1970s, when I was a college student studying Appalachian sociology, Highlander was a golden beacon - the place where Rosa Parks learned civil disobedience! How I wish this book was available then. It's much more than an autobiography of Highlander's founder, Myles Horton. It's more than a history of Highlander. It explains how Horton and his associates evolved their methods of education. As part of a peace and justice start-up myself, I found myself thinking,"I must tell everyone about this idea!" and, "Oh, that happens to us, too." This book is an inspiration.

Unsure of how you feel about bilingual education? Even more likely, don't really understand what bilingual education is? Read this book. Laurie Olsen helps us put a human face on what has become a political question. Her clear and well-written portrait of one school puts the issue of language, emotional and sensitive as it can be, in concrete terms of pragmatic educational effectiveness: You can't learn what you don't understand. For anyone who cares about this important issue, or even feels as though they should.

This book is wonderful for those considering a teaching career, new teachers, or anyone who wants to understand the profession. Especially worthwhile is the "Craft Of Teaching" chapter where Kohl shows how to integrate a curriculum: break down a topic like Circus into subsets like Animals, Art, Parades, etc.

This is a wonderful book. As I have worked at developing a charter school in my area to create a less oppressive atmosphere for my children's learning, this book has helped me crystalize my thinking about learning in school. It advocates an organic, realistic, and less patriarchal approach to being a teacher in a public school. It accurately describes the pitfalls of trying something different and more humane in teaching, while recognizing the difficulties inherent in changing the educational system. A true, MUST READ for teachers, parents, school board members, administrators, and students.

I am a parent of two homeschooled teenagers and highly recommend this book not only for teens but for others who are still searching for their "niche" in life. The author gives very practical ideas on helping make decisions about their vocation and does not automatically assume that college is the way to get there.

I am very happy to see that this book has been reprinted. I have two copies from the mid-70's, well-thumbed and dog-eared from being read so often. What the authors have to say about the way perception affects the world that we and other animals perceive, and how they say it, is timeless. To be read and enoyed by everyone, from ages 10 and up.

I really enjoyed the book. Although I find most books required of college students to read monotonous, this one held my interest from cover to cover. It is basically a collection of five stories which focus on creative maladjustment, which consists of (in Kohl's own words), "breaking social patterns that are morally reprehensible, taking conscious control of one's place in the environment, and readjusting the world one lives in based on personal integrity and honesty." In each story we find Kohl learning a little more about himself as a teacher through his students. Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the book is its reader-friendliness. Powerful, touching, and inspirational, the book is an important reference for all teachers. I feel privileged to have read it, and I will continue to use it as I further my education in teaching.

A teacher's role is to look past a student's outer shell to find what may be hidden inside and to search beyond the designated classroom curriculum for challenging way to entice a student to learn.
In Herbert Kohl's book titled " I won't learn from you" And Other Thoughts on Maladjustment, he talks about his experiences as a child growing up in a Jewish community in Bronx, New York and refusing to learn to speak his family's language of Yiddish. He relates how his experience of "not learning" helped him to understand why many of his students also chose to do the same thing. Kohl also speaks of the lessons he learned as a child from his imaginary friends, the "Masked Rider and the Tattooed Man". They provided him with the opportunity to dream about far away people and places. These dreams would one day lead him to discover the world and the lessons that could be found in places other than school. Through these struggles he learned that by focusing on a child's inter-strength instead of his inabilities and by developing approachable relaionships, he could develop in the child the desire to learn.
As one reads each of Herbert Kohl's 5 essays you realize how deep his devotion is to his students, his job as a teacher, and his community. In each of these essays he touches on many differenct aspects of being a good teacher, as well as, the value of listening to what a student has to say. To Herbert Kohl no student is a failure. It is the school system and society that has failed the student.
Every practicing teacher and pre-service teaching student should read this book to understand what is happening in the classroom. Herbert Kohls reminds us of why we chose to become teachers and our desire that each of our students may someday change the world.

Book Review- Ria Caldwell
Kohl, H. (1995). I won't learn from you: and other thoughts on creative maladjustment. New Press.

Kohl is now known as the classic speaker on "not learning" or refusing to learn that results in certain students' inappropriate placement into special education programs and classrooms. Kohl begins by describing certain situations and conditions that he finds himself in, requiring him to re-evaluate what it is that our students need. Hope as he refers to as "hopemongering" is the title of one of his chapters where he cites examples of how he has had to instill or rekindle the flame of hope that students so desperately need at times. Kohl provides some examples of how a student who would be viewed as a discipline or behavior problem might in fact be practicing his "not learning" ability or "right to refuse" as I like to call it.
Kohl addresses issues in education surrounding race, culture, economic, and linguistic differences that result in the diversity of each and every classroom in the U.S. He points out that the reasons for the amount of "dropout" teachers is exceeding the amount of "dropout" students and in order for this to change we need to adopt new ways of embracing these children who are often born into poverty. He emphasizes the importance of finding balance in order to achieve maximum effectiveness with our students. He indicates that the true art of teaching comes from being able to lead students to make discoveries that create their own meaning, purpose, learning and under-standing. Not "lecturing" them on the topic of equality but instead, facilitating their own critical thinking and encouraging them to find their own strengths and weaknesses and to explore their environments with a "new set of eyes." He also talks about fear of students, traditionally the fear that "white" teachers have of "black and latino" students, I would like to call this fear "culturephobia" or "colorphobia".
I think every teacher can find a part of themselves in the numerous examples cited in the book and am glad that I was able to read the words of a man who has so much to offer the educational institutions that exist today.