This provocative book articulates a new vision for teaching English by building on themes central to Jeffrey Wilhelm's"You Gotta BE The Book". With this new book, Wilhelm and Novak challenge business as usual in the language arts. They call for nothing short of a revolution in our understanding of the aims and methods of the English classroom by showing what English can do for democratic life inside and outside of classrooms. With moving portraits of teachers and students, as well as practical strategies and advice, they provide a roadmap to educational transformation far beyond the field of English that will be of interest to a wide audience of teachers, teacher educators, and curriculum developers.
The text explores these essential questions: Why is what we do as English teachers so often underestimated, and how can we remedy this to the benefit of students and society? How can we teach in a way that fully taps into the transformative power of literature? How can we artfully teach all subjects, at all levles, for personal wisdom, democratic community, and social and ecological justice?
