Penguin Books Online Digest, 8/17 - 8/21, 2009

EXCERPT

EXCERPT Down to Business Clara Villarosa (Avery)

EXCERPT Forking Fantastic Zora O'Neill and Tamara Reynolds (Gotham)

EXCERPT Graph Outloud  graphjam.com (Gotham)

VIDEO

VIDEO An Education Nick Hornby (Riverhead)

VIDEO The Law of Nines Terry Goodkind (Putnam)

VIDEO The Smartest Retirement Book You'll Ever Need Daniel Solin (Perigee)

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When I ask people what positive things about their schooling stand out in memory, they often mention a particular teacher, even a particular moment with a particular teacher.

A lot of educators have written about the importance of care in schooling, and I'd like to underscore an aspect of care, of meaningful relationships with adults, that, I think, warrants attention:  The intimate relation between these relationships and learning, good ol' hard-nosed cognitive outcomes.

I have a personal take on this issue, for it was one teacher, my senior high-school English teacher, Jack McFarland, who turned my life around.  He had a no-nonsense demeanor, and he had the most demanding curriculum I faced in four years of high school.  But we students knew he gave a damn, that he worked us because he believed in us, and he demanded more of himself - in terms of hours spent closely reading our papers - than he did of us.  After a while, hungry for adult connection, I wanted to connect with him.