Extreme Teaching

In a world where education is too often equated solely with the results of high-stakes testing, Babbage offers a refreshing reminder that education works best when teachers motivate students, students work best when teachers collaborate, and teachers are at their best when motivated by the needs of their students.​  Extreme Teaching places teachers, creativity, content focus, student engagement, and clearly articulated learning goals front and center as the primary variables in a successful educational formula.  The book identifies passionate, positive, practical, and immediately applicable instruction (not tests!) as the component that will have the most deeply-felt impact on students and their long-term success.  Babbage emphasizes education is a gift, and the chance to be an educator is a privilege.  Extreme Teaching examines how staying focused on simple questions such as "What do our students need?" and "How can we help one another help our students?" allows schools to rise above divisive pedagogical and administrative trends that dominate today's education headlines. -- Jessica Lynch Andrews, National Board Certified English teacher at Henry Clay High School, Lexington, KY
It seems we are waiting for America to remember that its economic prosperity was built on the back of a strong system of public schools, which while never perfect, led the world in understanding the importance and power of a great teacher in front of every child. In his update of Extreme Teaching Keen Babbage laments today’s “top-down invasions” of the classroom by non-teacher politicians and policy makers who devalue teachers by seeing them as replaceable assembly line drones, and whose money lures their superiors to undertake unsound, even harmful, practices. Young teachers will especially benefit from considering Babbage’s hero, an increasingly unusual teacher-turned-principal who trusts his faculty and opposes district mandates he does not believe will help his students—and who pays a price for his integrity. Embedded in the story are sound teaching ides and activities that reinforce the central message of extreme teaching—that students need their education to be real right now. -- Richard Day, associate professor, Educational Foundations, Eastern Kentucky University