Book News: Lifted by the Heart

"If a young teacher came and asked me, "What should I do?" I would answer: "Find 25 good stories--narratives about life. Learn them by heart and tell them. Then your students will revolutionize the world!" If a folkschool teacher knows 25 stories by heart, then he can really teach in a folkschool manner. But my provocative assertion is that there are hundreds of folkschool teachers who know thousands of facts about our wretched societal conditions, but do not know a single story which can lift the heart, which can tell us that life is larger than we thought." - Frederik Christensen

An excellent book called Lifted by the Heart (2009) landed on my desk this week--thanks Mila. The book is edited by Chris Spicer, a rad folk educator who's worked in everything from rural adult education literacy to conflict management with union-based front-line workers. The volume includes essays on schooling, history, poetry, farming, immigration, and cultural heritage by some of the brightest and most influential folk educators of the last century: Myles Horton, Don West, Johannes Knudsen, Frederik Christensen, and Loyal Jones.

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