Customer Reviews

To Teach: The Journey, in Comics

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I'm a professor of special education and I find this book to be a fascinating read. I believe my students will actually read this assigned book now that it is in comics versus the traditional text. I will also encourage my students not to sell back this book because they will need all the ideas on how to create a conducive learning environment for their students. To me, this is not just another graphic book, there are a of irrefutable and creative strategies that are cleverly conveyed through the fine artwork. Have fun and enjoy reading!

I enjoyed this rendition of Ayers' great "To Teach" tremendously. Alexander-Tanner's subtle but complex visual interpretation of Ayers' educational philosophy gives new life to his ideas. As someone who works in educational reform in public schools across the country, I'm so glad to see a work like this live on-- one where realism does not come at the expense of idealism. Ayers' colloquial approach to this sophisticated subjet matter is well suited to comics as a popular form. Highly recommended!

"Greatness in teaching engages students, interacts with them, draws energy and direction from them, and offer reasons to plunge into classroom life. Greatness in teaching is always in pursuit of the next challenge, the next encounter... greatness demands an openness to the new and the unique. For great teachers, it must always be, `Here I go again.'"


Bill Ayer's reworking of his book, To Teach: The Journey, in Comics is a wonderful, inspiring read, reworked into a comic medium (don't call it a genre) with illustrator Ryan Alexander-Tanner. One can only imagine the twists and turns of Ayer's journey from being on the FBI's wanted list as a member of the Weather Underground during the height of anti-Vietnam protests to being a kindergarten teacher and now professor or education.

I first met Mr. Ayers when he keynoted the Humboldt State University inaugural Education Summit. As part of the organizing committee under my then-mentor Eric Rofes, I was gifted with hours of conversations with Mr. Ayers over breakfasts and dinners. He is an amazing storyteller and a wonderful teacher.

Most of the story is about Bill thinking about teaching and about how his children learn. There are great stories about exploration, creativity, perseverance, and wonder.

Sprinkled through out are vignette from other teachers that Bill clearly admires. One such story talks about an elementary school teacher who has her class fill up a bookshelf every year as they learn about something that she, the teacher, knows nothing about. Together the teacher and the students become co-learners, exploring where their collective curiosity leads them.

Another story is about a high school teacher who is trying to "teach a really good kindergarten class with 18-year-olds." In this story, we learn about how scary it is to allow students to control the learning environment, and how rewarding it can be.

Periodically the "specialists" form the central office show up in Bill's classroom to explain to Bill how his children should be labeled as deficient or "at risk" and what standards he should be covering with his kindergartners. When they leave, Bill jumps upon his soap box to talk about how the standards movement, and it's enforcers, get in the way of the very human relationship that is teaching and learning. After one such meeting, when his children are diagnose as ADHD, learning deficient, and "at risk" he states, "Focusing on what I can't do diminishes hope and limits possibility. It pays no attention to what I can do."

When the "specialist" leave, one of Bill's children asks, "Are they coming back?" When Bill answers in the affirmative, the child speaks with what many teachers may agree is their own voice... "They're weird."

I teach a graduate level course for middle school teachers and had them read To Teach: The Journey in Comics and offer critical
reviews. The book made us consider more deeply, the use of graphic images along with text, in teaching adolescents as well as adults.
To Teach got us engaged in good discussions about the role of images, myths and metaphors in teaching. All three are vital in
reflective teaching practices.

I love love love this book!
It's a fun and complete guide to teaching and is perfect for teacher ed...I especially like the "Myths of Teaching." Check it out!

This was a great book! The only one of my college books that I actually looked at before having to read it in class. It was in excellent condition and arrived quickly. Thank you!

Bill Ayers could have easily given his famous book To Teach to a cartoonist and said "turn this into a graphic novel." And you know what it probably would have come out decent. But it wouldn't have come out as magically potent as To Teach: the journey, in comics, because in this case, artist Ryan Alexander-Tanner actually lived with Bill for six months. So they rebuilt the book from the ground up, even some of it becoming a seamless meta-memoir also chronicling their collaboration on rebuilding Bill's memoir!

Through examples of various students and also energetic, captivating illustrated dissertations, Bill & Ryan bring to life a truly humanistic approach to teaching, an approach making the sense of self-worth of each student paramount. An approach that says kids learn at different paces in different ways. I was a camp counselor for years, and was amazed at how unintentionally terribly some other counselors treated the kids. Its because of this ingrained hierarchical mindset... Bill's emphasizes that the teacher learns as well as the student and its that learning together that is a key to good teaching... SO many great ideas in this book, so many anecdotes warmly brought to life, seemingly effortlessly by artist Ryan Alexander-Tanner, who's illustrations saw Bill's ideas and memories and raised him one.

I've read the book three times and I'm goin'for number four.

To Teach: The Journey, in Comics is one of the few books out there that truly engages with the lived realities of youth today in a completely articulate and accessible way. Ayers confronts the status quo and really challenges his readers to experience this journey with him - for the good of us all in the future. Frankly, I was blown away. I have no doubt that if society at large were to place the absolute value Ayers gives to recognizing child agency, our world would be a far more just and equitable place.

Buy this book! Everyone! Especially parents, teachers and child advocates! You will not regret it!

Forget what you know about the radical William Ayers, instead re tune your view of him as an educator. To Teach is an thoughtful and creative look at teaching that shifts the paradigm of the teacher from that of an omniscient being who can never be wrong to an instructor who learns with the children. Ayers shows this in many ways, first in not labeling children and letting them be themselves, second in learning with the kids and realizing that a teacher does not need to know everything, also another important factor that is introduced is to be creative in your teaching so as to appeal to students. While these are the practical lessons they are also packaged very well. This is done through funny anecdotes, teacher profiles and family stories.
As this is a graphic novel one must also comment on the art, which is quite good. While at first Tanner's artwork may look simplistic it actually has a great deal of depth. This can be seen in the movement of the characters the complexity of the backgrounds and the way everything just seems to mesh together.
Lastly while this book is wonderful there are a few small problems. The biggest problem I noticed is that in one sequence there is a beekeeper and the text is nigh illegible. There are some other minor problems but nothing that really affects the use and enjoyability of the book. Overall a great and useful book.

HIGHLY RECOMMENCED

Don't miss this book. I have sent copies to all my young teacher friends, and they tell me they laughed and cried all the way through. Wisdom and theory about kids and education, and the day-to-day tough challenges - are you disciplining or teaching? Are you the teacher or the learner? Is it possible to be both and do it all? In the original classic, Ayers created a critical vision and a handbook. But in the journey in comics, Alexander-Tanner brings his own completely new, young, original and charming perspective to the conversation. He has created a narrator straight out of Curious George - an Ayers/avatar - and presents him with a light and humorous touch. All this makes the underlying educational philosophy and critique uniquely accessible.