Top 5 Books Every Educator Should Read

I get asked a lot what books I would recommend for educators and school leaders

While my personal library is well over 500 books strong, here are the five I think are critical to thinking deeply and well about the field and craft of education

These are the books I return to over and over again, year after year, to hone my thinking about what it means to be an educator worthy of the calling. They are the books I quote and reference most often in my writing and speaking, and they are the ones I believe must be on every educator’s shelf who desires to see schools transformed into places worthy of the students in our care

The Peaceable Classroom

Mary Rose O’Reilley

“Is it possible to teach in such a way so that people stop killing each other?”

This is the question O’Reilley attempts to answer in this book, and her response is a tour de force of conviction. She writes in a compelling, honest, raw way to help us grapple with what it means to shape human beings who are kind, compassionate, wise pursuers of peace working to make the world a better place

This book is the foundational text for Odyssey Leadership Academy, and one we come back to year after year in our professional development.

If there is one book above them all I would recommend, it is this one.

Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World

Dr Tony Wagner

“The world doesn’t care what you know. What the world cares about is what you do with what you know. In that regard, our schools are not failing; they are obsolete”

This is one of my favorite books. In it, Dr Tony Wagner (the Dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education) argues that the future of education must be geared towards shaping innovators who will use their knowledge and skills to change the world.

He argues (as I do) that the future belongs to the innovators, and that we best prepare our students when we help them gain the 21st century skills of imagination, wonder, purpose, critical thinking, communication, and creativity to prepare them to lead and thrive in the Innovation Era

Dr Wagner invites us to think about how we can practically reimagine schools as places that shape students capable, ready, and willing to be difference makers in the world

The Challenge to Care in Schools

Nel Noddings

“If the school has one main goal, a goal that guides the establishment and priority of all others, it should be to promote the growth of students as healthy, competent, moral people. Intellectual development is important, but it cannot be the first priority of schools”

In this book, Dr Noddings argues that education is best organized around centers of care: care for self, for others, for the physical environment, and for the world of objects and ideas. Within each of the these centers, she writes, we will find many themes on which to build courses, topical seminars, projects, reading lists, and dialogue.

Dr Noddings reminds us that the primary function of schools is not to churn out “good test takers” but flourishing human beings.

She writes, “I believe that a dedication to full human growth will not stunt or impede intellectual achievement, but even if it might, I would take the risk if I could produce people who would live nonviolently with each other, sensitively and in harmony with the natural environment, reflectively and serenely with themselves”

The Schools Our Children Deserve

Alfie Kohn

The more we stay focused on our long-term goals for our kids, the more we’ll do everything in our power to help them forget about grades so they can become excited about ideas.

For all of my brave colleagues who dare to dream better dreams for schools and students, THIS is the book for you!

Alfie Kohn is the guru and Godfather of the “going gradeless” movement, but he is much more than that. This book is a field guide for those ready and eager to see schools be worthy of students. He makes the case that schools must be more than mere “test centers” and should, instead, be places that encourage students to be their best, most robust, fully flourishing selves.

If you want a book that inspires you to reimagine what schooling can and should be…this is the one!

Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students

Denise Pope

“High achieving students are articulate, focused, multitalented, and industrious. They are the pride of the public education system and the hope for the future. Listen to the student, though, and you’ll hear a different side of success. Sleep just two to three hours each night and lives in a constant state of stress. Face anxiety and frustration. Resort to drastic actions when they worry that they will not maintain the grades they need for future careers. Admit to doing things that they’re not proud of in order to succeed in school”

The title of this book lets you know this is not a comfortable read, but it is a necessary read to hear directly from the voice of far too many students, especially high achieving students who feel burnt out, lost, isolated, stressed, and anxiety ridden because of the system of traditional schooling

Denise Pope walks us through what traditional schooling—with its desks and rows, bells and worksheets, quizzes and tests, grades and GPA—is really doing to our students, and what we must consider if we want to reverse the tragic statistics related to student self harm.

By spending a year walking alongside highly accomplished students in a rigorous college prep school, Pope gives us an inside look at how the system of schooling churns out despair, hopelessness, hostility, failure, and self doubt even and especially when it “succeeds”

This is a MUST read for educators who know deep down that the problem is not arrows missing the target…but that we have the wrong target to begin with

Those are my top five books I believe every educator and school leader must have on their shelf

What about you?

What books are must reads and must recommends for you?

What do you return to year after year, read after read?

Which books are dog-eared and deeply underlined on your shelf?

Please share with us so we can add them to our libraries!

And thank you for reading!

My work exists to help schools tell a better story for students, educators and the world. If I can help in any way—from workshops, consulting calls, professional development, keynotes, or year long cohorts—let me know!

Want direct, one-on-one help on reimagining education at your site?

→Check out my website: From one-on-one dream sessions, to consulting with your team, to sharing at your site, I am passionate about helping you reimagine learning in your educational community.

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