Learning by Heart: An Unconventional Education (Paperback)

One of the world’s top experts on education delivers an uplifting memoir on his own personal failures and successes as he sought to become a good learner and teacher.

Tony Wagner is an eminent education specialist: he’s taught at Harvard and MIT; done significant work for the Gates Foundation; and speaks across the country and all over the world. But before he found his success, Tony was kicked out of middle school, expelled from high school, and dropped out of two colleges. Learning by Heart is his powerful account of his years as a student and teacher.

After struggling in both roles, he learned a radically different approach to individualized learning—one based on understanding each student’s core questions and interests and strengthening his or her intrinsic motivations. From being labeled a failure in high school to experiencing the joy of learning at summer camp, from the years he spent working at odd jobs after dropping out of college, to his early, formative years as a teacher, his story is one that sheds light on several critical issues facing today’s educators and parents, and reminds us that trial and error, resilience, and respect for the individual, is at the very heart of all teaching and learning.