- ISBN13: 9780787972233
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
A decade after publication of his best-selling book, Barth returns to the schoolhouse. Drawing from a career committed to building schools rich in community, learning, and leadership, he shows how to accomplish the most difficult task of school reform-transforming a school’s culture so that it will be hospitable to human learning. In an engaging conversational style, he suggests how school people can become the architects, engineers, and designers of their own schoo… More >>
#1 by Stephen Armstrong on February 6, 2010 - 10:40 pm
Roland Barth’s book is loaded with idealism, passion, conviction, and hope. He comes with Harvard’s panache, having been a member of its faculty. He hopes to build school faculties of leaders who can transform a school from “ordinary” to “super,” with close attention to the hearts of the kids and teachers.
This book ignores one of the major findings from Diane Ravitch’s Left Behind, however. She says, “What American education most needs is not more nostrums and enthusiasms but more attention to fundamental, time-tested truths” (p. 453). Barth’s thinking that teachers can somehow be leaders in a bureaucratized, systemically crippled system qualifies as a nostrum. Barth celebrates “craft knowledge” (as opposed to what he calls “booklernin’”) He proposes, without evidence, that teachers who use these methods will have learning go “off the chart” (p. 11). I could not find any reference at all to basic education, mathematical facts, reading good literature, or how to set standards for what he proposes.
Too bad. A fairly well written book, Learning by Heart is loaded with unvalidated ideas, romantic hyperbole, and nostrums. It may work for Harvard types, but not for most of the country.
Rating: 2 / 5
#2 by C. Mcgrath on February 7, 2010 - 12:31 am
This is an excellent book for a teacher looking for inspiration to new heights in the profession. Barth, while at times a bit unrealistic, strikes at the heart of what teachers need to understand about leardership and how to tap this resource within ourselves.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by TSU Grad on February 7, 2010 - 3:09 am
Barth shares the need for experiential learning, craft knowledge and reflection. He encourages the leader to participate in self-renewal by creating a team of followers through a process of decentralization. A connection between learning and leading is established to increase commitment by working towards changing the mindset of others.
The book reemphasized the true need for collaboration and cooperation, as both are instrumental in the change process for campus improvement. Decision making by all parties increased the opportunity for more diverse ideas. Barth discussed the concept of “craft knowledge” or individual expertise that teachers possessed. Professionals brought with them their “massive collection of experiences.” Efforts were made to ensure these rich sources were shared and not kept behind classroom doors.As a practicing educator, I found aspects of Barth’s book informative and helpful.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Erica Suares on February 7, 2010 - 5:52 am
Completely inspiring! Barth has a way of connecting to the hearts and minds of both educators and policymakers. The tension that exists between those involved in policy, and those within schools should be discussed openly, as it is here.
He opens with a Robert Frost quote that sums up the role of the educator (or should!): “What is done is done for the love of it–or not really done at all.” If we love children and schools enough we’ll take time to listen to some of the suggestions in this book, and others like it.
The chapter I liked best was chapter six, “Craft Knowledge”. Craft knowledge, as Barth defines it, is the “massive collection of experiences and learnings that those who live and work under the roof of the schoolhouse inevitably accrue during their careers”. It’s important for Ed researchers, policymakers, and educators to make full use of these insights.
I am in grad school for Sec. Ed./ Ed policy, and this has been perhaps the best book I’ve read so far. It’s a quick read, and helps spark your passion for many issues relating to education.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Anonymous on February 7, 2010 - 7:14 am
The school is not an island, yet Roland Barth would have it be one replete with his ill-advised lighthouse metaphor. Barth correctly focuses on school culture as one critical component of school success, but unwittingly poisons the idea with disparaging and gratuitous remarks about “imperious central office staff” and his “fantasies” of a school with no parents! A school’s culture is the sum of the whole and cannot exclude other stakeholders. Barth offers nothing inherently new or visionary in this book, best evidenced by his statement, “I believe that schools are lighthouses.” Does he mean they are immovable or beacons of light? Historical relics or valuable real estate ripe for redevelopment? Barth promotes continued learning by the faculty, but especially the principal. This is hardly an earth-shaking new idea. Barth challenges the reader to be a risk taker and for principals to promote risk taking. Again, a valid cliche, but not enlightening. This lighthouse needs more oil.
Rating: 3 / 5