Those Who Can, Teach
What It Takes To Make the Next Generation
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:18th Aug '22
Should be back in stock very soon
This inspiring account details Andria Zafirakou's journey as a dedicated teacher, highlighting the challenges and triumphs in education today. Those Who Can, Teach is a must-read.
In Those Who Can, Teach, Andria Zafirakou shares her remarkable journey as a dedicated arts teacher in an inner-city London school. With over eighty languages spoken among her students, Zafirakou's approach is both innovative and compassionate. She goes beyond traditional teaching methods, addressing the urgent needs of her pupils by mending uniforms, contacting social services, and providing support to vulnerable teens. Her belief in the transformative power of art helps unlock the potential within her students, enabling them to overcome trauma and find their voices.
The narrative highlights the challenges faced by educators today, particularly in light of government cuts and curriculum changes that threaten arts education. Winning the prestigious Global Teacher Prize in 2018, Zafirakou is determined to reinvest the prize money into arts programs, advocating for the importance of creative expression in schools. Her story serves as a powerful reminder of the vital role teachers play in safeguarding children against issues like cyber-bullying, gang violence, and deprivation.
Those Who Can, Teach is more than just a personal account; it is a rallying call for change in the educational landscape. Zafirakou's unwavering commitment to her students and her belief in their potential shine through, making this book an inspiring read for anyone passionate about education and the future of our children.
Part autobiography, part teaching masterclass, it’s a clarion call for people to value the arts in state education, as well as a powerful reminder that a teacher ready to listen can transform a young person’s life -- Will Hazell * i *
A prizewinning teacher makes clear how little government understands about what goes on in schools . . . Those Who Can, Teach is a response to the government’s scattergun approach to education, a plea for them to take notice of the pressures teachers are increasingly placed under, and how education policy is damaging young people. [Zafirakou’s] simple, direct style often feels close to a manifesto -- Lamorna Ash * Guardian *
A memoir of [Zafirakou’s] time in the classroom, told through the lives and experiences of some of her most memorable and hard-to-reach pupils . . . Some of her pupils have been recent arrivals to Britain; some have escaped war; many have chaotic home lives . . . The stories she tells, of bringing these students to life in her art lessons, are little parables of possibility. They tell of students who have unlocked trauma through their drawing, or who have spoken for the first time because they found a home in the art room -- Tim Adams * Observer *
This is a teacher who went out and spent over sixty pounds of her own money to buy a uniform in Asda for a boy who had no chance of getting one from home; this is a teacher who took one boy’s clothes to the school washing machine during PE lessons so he’d have them clean and dry afterwards . . . You can call this good teaching; what it looks like is love . . . Art is, like music, the universal language, and what’s striking is how many children, who find it near impossible to communicate in any other way, can communicate through art . . . That’s the lesson of story after story; the most difficult children can come into their own when they learn that they are good at something, at art, and are recognised as good * Evening Standard *
Achingly humane . . . Searingly wise . . . Totally riveting . . . Unmissable -- Michael Attenborough CBE
ISBN: 9781526614049
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
304 pages