Is the joy of learning through play still foremost in early childhood education? Does this really include reading for enjoyment, and not just reading as many condensed and abridged pieces of mind candy as possible to win a contest? What could replace a child’s activities if there were no homework? (I have a student writing about this). See Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. This can be a good place for a discussion of the value of play in childhood, including the reading of true fairy tales (a broad term not just about fairies). A good author covering the latter is Bruno Bettelheim in The Uses of Enchantment. Even older learners need to read for enjoyment sometimes! Here is another discussion of fairy tales, “Techno-Magic: Cinema and Fairy Tales” from Oxford UP. From the Digital Commons, and a link to the reading list of Joseph Campbell: “The Fable and the Fabulous: The Use of Traditional Forms in Children’s Literature.”
No matter how much time you spend on Amazon, Google or an old fashioned, peaceful, musty library, finding one good book can make your day, or your life! You are on a journey which may at some point in your life, or repeatedly in your life, may be more important to you than the destination! Finding a particular book at a particular time may seem like serendipity, or is it? Then you find the next book and many more and soon enough you’re creating your own wealth of knowledge and philosophy of life, and then you may want to share that. I’m sharing here titles of some print books in my actual library, some of which I have referenced when advising students on their research. This is a link to my ever growing Amazon shopping “wish” list where I’ve read what chapters the authors and publishers enticingly offer for free. The link to my MA Thesis on Orwell also brings you to JSTOR part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. Some colleges offer library-created lists of open sources for any reader, such as Fordham.
Nonfiction books on my shelf. Much more poetry and fiction not listed here. Also not listed downloaded books for Kindle.
The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, by Pico Iyer
The Great Work: Our Way into the Future, by Thomas Berry
The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos: Humanity and the New Story, by Brian Swimme
The Dancing Universe: From Creation Myths to the Big Bang, by Marcelo Gleiser
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr
Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole, by Benjamin Barber
Raised Catholic (Can You Tell?), by Ed Stivender
Why I Write, by George Orwell
On Lying and Politics, by Hannah Arendt
The (Burning) Case for a GREEN NEW DEAL, by Naomi Klein
The Age of American Unreason in a Culture of Lies, by Susan Jacoby
The Knowledge Deficit: Closing the Shocking Education Gap for American Children, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
Beyond Measure: Rescuing an Overscheduled, Overtested, Underestimated Generation, by Vicki Abeles
The Closing of the American Mind, by Allan Bloom
mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D
Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell
David & Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, by Malcolm Gladwell
Other Minds, The Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, by Peter Godfrey-Smith
The Social Conquest of Earth, by Edward O. Wilson
Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond
The World Until Yesterday, by Jared Diamond
The Devaluing of America, William Bennett
Leisure the Basis of Culture, by Josef Pieper
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge
Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
How to Read and Why, by Harold Bloom
The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White
On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser
Writing to Learn: How to Write – And Think – Clearly About Any Subject At All, by William Zinsser
The New SuperLeadership: Leading Others to Lead Themselves, by Charles Manz, Henry Sims
Lean Thinking, by James Womack and David Jones
Tough Choices OR Tough Times: The Report of the new Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. National Center on Education and the Economy
An American Imperative: Higher Expectations for Higher Education: An Open Letter to Those Concerned about the American Future. The Wingspread Group on Higher Education
Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters, by Michael S. Roth
The Work of Nations, by Robert Reich
The Story of Ethics: Fulfilling Our Human Nature, by Kelly Clark, Anne Poortenga
The Universe and Dr. Einstein: The Clearest, Most Readable Book on Einstein’s Theories Ever Published, by Lincoln Barnett (Foreword by Albert Einstein)
Global Paradox, John Naisbitt
The Underground History of American Education: An Intimate Investigation into the Prison of Modern Schooling, by John Taylor Gatto
A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling, by John Taylor Gatto
Childhood Lost: How American Culture is Failing Our Kids, Edited by Sharna Olfman
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv
Horace’s Hope: What Works for the American High School, by Theodore Sizer
Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform, by Diane Ravitch
The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need – And What we Can Do About It, by Tony Wagner
Making Professional Development Schools Work, by Levine Trachtman
Do What You Are, Tieger and Barron-Tieger
Passion and Purpose, Marlys Hanson
Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools, by Jonathan Kozol
Colleges That Change Lives, Loren Pope
The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World, by Jeremy Rifkin
Ask the Beasts: Darwin And The God Of Love, by Elizabeth Johnson
Evolutionary Faith: Rediscovering God in Our Great Story, by Diarmuid O’Murchu
Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness, by Ian Tattersall
The Coming Global Superstorm, by Art Bell, Whitley Streiber
Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, by Edward Abbey
A Rulebook for Arguments, by Anthony Weston
Common Sense, by Thomas Paine
The Power Structure, by Arnold Rose
The Radical Liberal, by Donald Kaufman
Radiant Cool, by Dan Lloyd
The Spirit of Zen, by Alan W. Watts
The Silent Life, by Thomas Merton
The Phenomenon of Man, by Teilhard de Chardin
The Divine Milieu, by Teilhard de Chardin
Teilhard de Chardin: The Man and His Meaning, by Henri de Lubac
The Doors of Perception Includes Heaven and Hell, by Aldous Huxley
The World’s Last Night, by C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis
The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra
George Orwell Into the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas Cushman, John Rodden (Editors) (All of Orwell’s books and essays)
Books by Tom Wolfe, such as the Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Books by Charles Dickens
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley (fiction)
Brave New World REVISITED, by Aldous Huxley (fiction)
Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy (fiction)
The Pilgrim’s Regress, by C.S. Lewis
The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength), by C.S. Lewis (fiction)
The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon (fiction)
A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller (fiction)
The Argo Merchant Disaster, by George Starbuck (poetry)
A Little Treasury of Modern Poetry, by Oscar Williams (poetry)
under milk wood, by Dylan Thomas (poetry)
The Poetry of Dylan Thomas, by Elder Olson (poetry)
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (The Astronomer Poet of Persia) (poetry)
The poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins