A breathlessly written plea for the love of teaching and respect for student agency as the heart of classroom education.
A model of an “ideal K–12 education.”
To be a well-educated child lies not in mastering a canon of concepts or major authors, skills, and subjects. Rather, it lies in the mastery of love. Kenny is the founder of Harlem Village Academies, a network of charter schools, as well as the Deeper Learning Institute, and as singer-songwriter John Legend writes in a foreword to her book, “She reminds us that joy and academic rigor are not opposites….great teaching means helping children learn how to think, not just how to follow.” Kenny illustrates how caring teachers rely on “student discourse, complex questioning, and students taking ownership of their learning.” Her book makes much of how the “highest purpose” of school is “the shaping of the soul, the inner life.” Guidelines for “ethical purpose” and “quality thinking” break out of the book’s pages like tag lines on a PowerPoint presentation. Like many recent manifestos for the mind, the book has a utopian feel: If we could only stop teaching to the text and start learning from the life. Some teachers may find these ideals hard to earn in rooms filled with the hungry and unhoused. “The development of agency requires a shift in school culture as well as an infrastructure of practices,” Kenny writes. “Routines, for example, can teach the skills of self-direction.” The book’s appeal to “Emersonian self-reliance,” however, may not work for those who have relied on others all their lives. Finding your soul and seeking yourself have been the goals of classroom innovators from the Puritans and Louisa May Alcott to John Dewey and beyond. Just how to achieve them will take more than good faith.
A breathlessly written plea for the love of teaching and respect for student agency as the heart of classroom education.Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9781638933328
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Get Lifted Books/Zando
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
This guide to Black culture for White people is accessible but rarely easy.
A former NFL player casts his gimlet eye on American race relations.
In his first book, Acho, an analyst for Fox Sports who grew up in Dallas as the son of Nigerian immigrants, addresses White readers who have sent him questions about Black history and culture. “My childhood,” he writes, “was one big study abroad in white culture—followed by studying abroad in black culture during college and then during my years in the NFL, which I spent on teams with 80-90 percent black players, each of whom had his own experience of being a person of color in America. Now, I’m fluent in both cultures: black and white.” While the author avoids condescending to readers who already acknowledge their White privilege or understand why it’s unacceptable to use the N-word, he’s also attuned to the sensitive nature of the topic. As such, he has created “a place where questions you may have been afraid to ask get answered.” Acho has a deft touch and a historian’s knack for marshaling facts. He packs a lot into his concise narrative, from an incisive historical breakdown of American racial unrest and violence to the ways of cultural appropriation: Your friend respecting and appreciating Black arts and culture? OK. Kim Kardashian showing off her braids and attributing her sense of style to Bo Derek? Not so much. Within larger chapters, the text, which originated with the author’s online video series with the same title, is neatly organized under helpful headings: “Let’s rewind,” “Let’s get uncomfortable,” “Talk it, walk it.” Acho can be funny, but that’s not his goal—nor is he pedaling gotcha zingers or pleas for headlines. The author delivers exactly what he promises in the title, tackling difficult topics with the depth of an engaged cultural thinker and the style of an experienced wordsmith. Throughout, Acho is a friendly guide, seeking to sow understanding even if it means risking just a little discord.
This guide to Black culture for White people is accessible but rarely easy.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-80046-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The sub-title of this book is "Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools." But one finds in it little about education, and less about the teaching of English. Nor is this volume a defense of the Christian faith similar to other books from the pen of C. S. Lewis. The three lectures comprising the book are rather rambling talks about life and literature and philosophy. Those who have come to expect from Lewis penetrating satire and a subtle sense of humor, used to buttress a real Christian faith, will be disappointed.
Pub Date: April 8, 1947
ISBN: 1609421477
Page Count: -
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1947
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