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Review: Teaching How to Learn in a What-to-Learn Culture

 

Review:   Teaching How to Learn in a What-to-Learn Culture

Kathleen Hopkins has written a book so satisfying to the mind of this educational therapist that I find myself quoting it to every colleague I encounter.  Shedding the old taboos against teachers disclosing their life stories, Hopkins shares with exquisite prose her personal obstacles and influences that molded the remarkable educator she has become. Weaving together theory, life lessons, and practice, she provides ways of thinking that “embolden both the teacher and the learner to think differently.”  She brings the reader the very notions that have been fundamentals in my own practice for years— “the joy of really teaching students, not just content”; such ideas as “searching for each learner’s individual gifts,” reaching for their “skylights” that transcend all that they have been taught; learning from real life situations, beyond memorization into dynamic discovery of ideas; modeling a love of learning for it’s own sake.  These are indeed the blueprints for real learning to take place.

Anyone, in any field, who has ever tried to teach anything to others can benefit by the perspective of this profound book--so revolutionary in the power of its wisdom and the readability of its text.

Dorothy Ungerleider, MA, BCET Founding President, Association of Educational Therapists