Oct 20, 2015
This is a true story: In 2001 I was invited by Jossey-Bass publishers to do a second edition of Learning to Listen Learning to Teach. I thought, "Before I agree, I should read that book again!" I was working in California and faced a long airplane ride: a good opportunity to read the book and ponder the possibilities of a second edition.
I sat by the window, reading, chuckling quietly at the humor, weeping silently at some of the stories. My companion in the aisle seat looked over at me: “Looks like a good book!”
“Oh, it is wonderful!” I replied. “I would love to meet the author!”
For the past two months I have been doing a customized special course for my adopted grandson, Zachary, and a very special friend, Beth, of TeachingHorse. Both are young, hungry to learn about teaching and learning. We are using three of my books: Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach, Taking Learning to Task and On Teaching and Learning.
Preparing for this week’s class, I re-read Taking Learning to Task. Published in 2001, it anticipates on every page the work of James E. Zull, The Art of Changing the Brain. It needs a second edition, showing all that we have learned since 2001. I have asked my friend and colleague, Sarah Gravett, Dean of the Faculty of Education at The University of Johannesburg to work with me on this.
Please, read it again – marvel at the explicit, well-sequenced directions that enable you to build your own
viable system of learning-centered programs. Look for the second edition, hopefully in 2016. David Brightman, my editor at Jossey-Bass/Wiley is now a senior editor at Stylus Publishers who published Zull’s work! Now that is Synchronicity with a capital G for Gift!
What strikes you as most useful in this text as you read it another time?