Teaching with Fire:
Poetry that Sustains the Courage to teach

SAM M. INTRATOR & MEGAN SCRIBNER, EDITORS
JOSSEY-BASS PUBLISHERS, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 2003

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Teaching with Fire is a powerful collection of eighty-eight poems from well-loved poets such as Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Billy Collins, Emily Dickinson, and Pablo Neruda. Each poem is accompanied by a brief story from a teacher explaining the significance of the poem in his or her life’s work; along with essays that describe how poetry can be used both personally and professionally. When asked to contribute, I chose to describe the comfort and presence of the work of e.e.cummings in my life.

REVIEWS

“Teaching with Fire is a glorious collection of the poetry that has restored the faith of teachers in the highest, most transcendent values of their work with children.”
— Jonathan Kozol, author of Amazing Grace and Savage Inequalities

“In the Confucian tradition it is said that the mark of a golden era is that children are the most important members of the society and teaching is the most revered profession. Our journey to that ideal may be a long one, but it is books like this that will sustain us.”
— Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline