The Passionate Teacher: A Practicial Guide »

Robert L. Fried is associate professor of education at Northeastern University in Boston, and works with teachers and parents in schools around the country. Author of The Passionate Teacher: A Practical Guide, he lives in Concord, New Hampshire.

Following up on the success of the The Passionate Teacher: A Practical Guide, Robert Fried's The Passionate Learner is an inspirational and practical guide to reclaiming students' passionate engagement in learning.

All preschool children are passionate, curious learners. Somewhere along the way—in school—many, many kids become alienated from the joy of learning. Academically successful and frustrated students alike become reluctant or resistant or merely obedient. How could school be different so that this didn't happen?

Fried starts with vivid portraits of young children as passionate learners, invoking the voices and hopes of parents and teachers. He shows us how a "chasm" develops between the initial promise of every child and the reality of life in school. Then, step by step, he shows how teachers—and parents as allies—can encourage and develop passionate learning in all kids.

Filled with stories from classrooms, the voices of teachers, and practical suggestions, Fried advocates a vision of curriculum as a web of relationships and a revised understanding of "excellence" that supports passionate learning. Fried identifies with teachers' frustration, but then patiently and enthusiastically leads them in a new direction. Topics include: making children passionate readers who pick up books on their own; teaching children to be confident orators in class; holding on to passionate teaching and learning in an era of standardization. Inspirational, accessible, and filled with detailed storytelling, The Passionate Learner will inspire and instruct teachers and parents of children at all grade levels.