Teaching is no joke and teaching well in this political client may be even more exhausting. Here are a few books to inspire, inform, and prepare educators for the year ahead.

What matters?
One of the most beautiful meditations on the nature of life, teaching, and learning is Herb Kohl’s wondrous small book, Painting Chinese: A Lifelong Teacher Gains the Wisdom of Youth. I have given countless copies away as a gift. This book is just what you need for that jolt of inspiration, and perhaps even course correction, as you head into 2025.

Remembering the mission
Author, educator, and civil rights activist Jonathan Kozol has written countless masterpieces. Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope may be my favorite. This unsung classic reminds readers of the deeply spiritual obligation to serve kids, especially other people’s children.

The Science of Reading isn’t
The media and political mischief makers are hard at work accusing teachers of nurturing illiteracy. Their mean-spirited mechanistic prescriptions are even more preposterous and counter-productive. The great Frank Smith’s small book, Reading F.A.Q. is the guide to preserving common sense and teacher professionalism.

Make math great again
Forces are working to turn back the clock on school math instruction and make the subject less pleasant, relevant, and learnable by contemporary children.

Jo Boaler’s What’s Math Got to Do with It?: How Teachers and Parents Can Transform Mathematics Learning and Inspire Successand Conrad Wolfram’s The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age are essential guides for teaching today and tomorrow.

Favorite school leadership book
Give a copy of The Inner Principal: Reflections on Educational Leadership by one of the word’s most consequential principal, David Loader, to your school principal or leadership team. It’s sure to inspire!