Biography & autobiography / Educators

Tisha: The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaskan Wilderness

by Robert Specht

The author tells the story as told to him of Anne Hobbs, a woman who went to Alaska in the 1920's to teach, but who had trouble due to her kindness to the Indians there.

Where a Man Stands: Two Different Worlds, An Impossible Situation, and the Unexpected Friendship that Changed Everything

by Carter Paysinger & Steven Fenton

When Beverly Hills High School welcomed a skinny boy from the other side of the tracks, no one knew just how life-changing the decision would be, not just for Carter Paysinger but for all of Beverly Hills.

Carter...

Crazy Like a Fox: One Principal's Triumph in the Inner City

by Dr. Ben Chavis & Carey Blakely

The inspiring true story of "one of the country's finest educators" (National Review) and the school he changed forever.

Under the leadership of highly unorthodox principal Dr. Ben Chavis, Oakland's American...

Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year, Expanded Edition

by EsméRaji Codell

A must-read for parents, new teachers, and classroom veterans, Educating Esmé is the exuberant diary of Esmé Raji Codell's first year teaching in a Chicago public school. Fresh-mouthed and free-spirited, the...

Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America

by Jay Mathews

When Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin signed up for Teach for America right after college and found themselves utter failures in the classroom, they vowed to remake themselves into superior educators. They did that-and...

Vidyasagar: The Life and After-life of an Eminent Indian

by Brian A. Hatcher

This book offers a new interpretation of the life and legacy of the Indian reformer and intellectual, Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar (1820-91).

Drawing upon autobiography, biography, secondary criticism and a range...

The Education of Alice M. Jordan: Navigating a Career in Children's Librarianship

by Gale Eaton

A long overdue biography of Alice M. Jordan (1870-1960), head of youth services at the Boston Public Library from 1902 to 1940 and one of the pioneers of children’s librarianship. Between the Age of Sail and...

Founding a School in France: L'Ecole Hampshire

by Jane Box-Grainger

For many pupils over the past thirty years one of the highlights of their school life has been their trip to the little village of Veyrines-de-Domme in the heart of rural France. Since L'École Hampshire was...

The Last Lecture: Enhanced with Audio and Video

by Randy Pausch

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."---Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on...

Antonio Caso, Philosopher of Mexico: Philosopher of Mexico

by John H. Haddox

Few men have had as much cultural and educational influence on their own countries as the philosopher and educator Antonio Caso (1883-1946). He was above all a patriot of his beloved Mexico, and he sought to...

Joe Doupe: Bedside Physiologist

by Terence Moore

Joe Doupe showed that Winnipeg's medical students, though small and distant from the great medical centres, could become a first-rate teaching and research establishment; in doing so he became one of Canada's...

Crossing the Water: Eighteen Months on an Island Working with Troubled Boys -- A Teacher's Memoir

by Daniel Robb

Off the coast of Cape Cod lies a small windswept island called Penikese. Alone on the island is a school for juvenile delinquents, the Penikese Island School, where Daniel Robb lived and worked for three years...

Greetings Noble Sir

by Nigel Flaxton

Nigel Flaxton enjoyed a satisfying career in education covering the second half of the 20th century, This is an account of some of his experiences from old-fashioned monastic seclusion in training college just...

Noah Webster: The Life and Times of an American Patriot

by Harlow Giles Unger

"Noah Webster was a truly remarkable man, shrewd, passionate, learned and energetic, God-fearing and patriotic. Mr. Unger has done a fine job reintroducing him to a new generation of Americans." --Washington...

The Priority List: A Teacher's Final Quest to Discover Life's Greatest Lessons

by David Menasche

In this poignant and inspiring memoir, a beloved high school English teacher with terminal brain cancer undertakes a cross-country journey to reunite with his former students in order to find out if he made...

Up from Slavery

by Booker T. Washington

Washington (1856-1915) rose to become the most influential spokesman for African-Americans of his day. In this eloquently written book, he describes events in a remarkable life that began in bondage and culminated...

Walking on Water: Reading, Writing and Revolution

by Derrick Jensen

Remember the days of longing for the hands on the classroom clock to move faster? Most of us would say we love to learn, but we hated school. Why is that? What happens to creativity and individuality as we pass...

The Road to Home: My Life and Times

by Vartan Gregorian

Vartan Gregorian's tale starts with a childhood of poverty, deprivation, and enchantment in the Armenian quarter of Tabriz, Iran. As the world reeled from depression into six years of warfare, his mother died,...

Paul Robert Hanna: A Life of Expanding Communities

by Jared R. Stallones

Analyzing and ultimately placing in context Paul Hanna's vast contributions, this book provides a richly textured narrative of his life and his major role in twentieth-century American education and the development...

Educating Muslim Women: The West African Legacy of Nana Asma'u 1793-1864

by Beverley Mack & Jean Boyd

Nana Asma’u (1793–1864) was a prolific Muslim scholar, poet, historian, and educator whose legacy in Nigeria and America continues today.