The inspiration for a television comedy from Executive Producer Amy Poehler, I Feel Bad is out now on NBC. “Auslander’s idiosyncratic drawing style, with loopy lines that appear to unravel as though they’re loosely crocheted, is anxiety personified… [I Feel Bad] belongs to the brand of humor whose main gag is that mothers are human… [Auslander] goes dark and specific, transcending the theme.”—Anya Ulinich, The New York Times Book Review Roz Chast meets Allie Brosh in this hilarious, unfiltered, and beautifully illustrated look at the infinite number of reasons the author experiences guilt, shame, regret and self-reproach in her daily life, and that maybe—just maybe—some of us can relate to as well. In a series of 100 illustrations with accompanying text, Orli Auslander has captured a mood and emotional ambivalence that will be all too familiar for readers: trying to be the best wife, mother, and friend she can be, while simultaneously feeling shitty about virtually everything she does. Confronting her daily experience with dark humor and brilliant and brutal honesty, she shows us how being an overindulgent mother makes her feel as terrible as the times when she can't stand the sight of her kids; how saying yes to the wrong experiences and no to the right requests is equally bad; how her Jewish heritage complicates her relationships with her overly religious family and irreligious children; and how having a vagina is the ultimate inescapable struggle. With a distinctive, textured ink drawing style which brings to mind a female Robert Crumb and a neurotic Edward Gorey, I Feel Bad is a book that readers will buy for themselves and for a best friend, and where every reader will find the precise moment that Auslander voiced their own deepest anxiety in her poignant and hilarious illustrations.

Arguing against the tougher standards rhetoric that marks the current education debate, the author of No Contest and Punished by Rewards writes that such tactics squeeze the pleasure out of learning. Reprint.

Mind-opening writing on what kids need from school, from one of education’s most outspoken voices Arguing that our schools are currently in the grip of a “cult of rigor”—a confusion of harder with better that threatens to banish both joy and meaningful intellectual inquiry from our classrooms—Alfie Kohn issues a stirring call to rethink our priorities and reconsider our practices. Kohn’s latest wide-ranging collection of writings will add to his reputation as one of the most incisive thinkers in the field, who questions the assumptions too often taken for granted in discussions about education and human behavior. In nineteen recently published essays—and in a substantive introduction, new for this volume—Kohn repeatedly invites us to think more deeply about the conventional wisdom. Is self-discipline always desirable? he asks, citing surprising evidence to the contrary. Does academic cheating necessarily indicate a moral failing? Might inspirational posters commonly found on school walls (“Reach for the stars!”) reflect disturbing assumptions about children? Could the use of rubrics for evaluating student learning prove counterproductive? Subjecting young children to homework, grades, or standardized tests—merely because these things will be required of them later—reminds Kohn of Monty Python’s “getting hit on the head lessons.” And, with tongue firmly in cheek, he declares that we should immediately begin teaching twenty-second-century skills. Whether Kohn is clearing up misconceptions about progressive education or explaining why incentives for healthier living are bound to backfire, debunking the idea that education reform should be driven by concerns about economic competitiveness or putting “Supernanny” in her place, his readers will understand why the Washington Post has said that “teachers and parents who encounter Kohn and his thoughts come away transfixed, ready to change their schools.”

An analysis of what contemporary directors seek to attain by putting their spectators in a position of strong discomfort

Focusing on a wide range of critical issues, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of the linkage of different educational ideas, policies, and practices to a commitment for democratic schooling. Informed by significant, interdisciplinary research, as well as by his own extensive professional experiences as a teacher, professor, department chair, and dean, Teitelbaum examines contemporary concerns related to three broad areas: 1) teaching and teacher education; 2) curriculum studies; and 3) multiculturalism and social justice. His approach is to integrate the current and the historical, the practical and the theoretical, the technical and the socio-political, and the personal and the structural. With this volume, Teitelbaum considers how schools should be organized and funded, what they should teach and to whom, the role that teachers, students, and parents should play in school life, and the need and prospects for schools and teacher education programs that foster meaningful learning, critical reflection, and social justice.

What are the issues that education raises for you? Beyond the technical skills and knowledge aspects of education, teachers and student teachers face questions which challenge their beliefs and approaches to their teaching and learning. This book contains a series of short articles each of which encourage you to reflect on your own practice and challenge your beliefs about how and what you teach. Questions explored include: When does inclusion become exclusion for the rest of the class? Do interactive whiteboards support or reduce creativity in the classroom? Is drama a luxury in the primary classroom? Should we be teaching other languages to children under seven? Learning outside the classroom, is it worth it? What makes a reflective practitioner? Essential reading for those training to teach children aged between 3 and 11, as well as practicing teachers looking to develop their practice.

In this 10th anniversary edition of an ASCD best seller, author Alfie Kohn reflects on his innovative ideas about replacing traditional discipline programs, in which things are done to students to control how they act, with a collaborative approach, in which we work with students to create caring communities. Features a new afterword by the author.