Books Every Teacher Should Read

Some books in the field of education are so important that you are not fully prepared to be a teacher unless you’ve read them, whether they have been assigned for a specific class or not. Professors in the College of Education and Human Services at Minnesota State University Moorhead have selected the following books as “must reads.” All are available in Livingston Lord Library, Minnesota State University Moorhead, unless otherwise noted. 

Ashton-Warner, Sylvia. Teacher. New York: Bantam, 1963.   LC3501 .M3 A8.  Selected by Dr. Anderson.

Axline, Virginia Mae. Dibs: In Search of Self: Personality Development in Play Therapy. Boston: Houghton, 1964. RJ504 .A97.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Benjamin, Harold Raymond Wayne. Saber-Tooth Curriculum. New York: McGraw, 1972.  LA23 .B43 1972.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Cusick, Philip A. Inside High School: The Student’s World. New York: Holt, 1973.  NDSU Library LB3605 .C87.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

FitzGerald, Frances. America Revised: History Schoolbooks in the Twentieth Century. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979.  E175.85 .F57.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Trans. Myra Bergman Ramos. New York: Continuum, 1970.  LB880 .F73 P4313 2000.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Glasser, William.  Choice Theory in the Classroom.  New York: HarperPerennial, 1986.  LB3013 .G56 1986.  Selected by Dr. Davis.

Goodlad, John I. What Schools Are For. Bloomington, Ind.: Phi Delta Kappa, 1994.  LB41 .G65 1994.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Greer, Colin. The Great School Legend: A Revisionist Interpretation of America Public Education. New York: Basic Books, 1972.  LC205 .G7.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Hilton, James. Goodbye, Mr. Chips. New York: Bantam, 1962.  Curric. H656g2.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Holt, John Caldwell. How Children Fail. New York: Pitman, 1964.  LB1555 .H78.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Kaufman, Bel. Up the Down Staircase. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1964.  PS3521.A72 U6; Curric. K21u.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Kohl, Herbert R.  36 Children. New York: New American Library, 1967.  LC2803.H3 K6; Curric. 371.9 K79t.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Kozol, Jonathan.  Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools. Boston: Houghton, 1967.  LC2803 .B7 K6.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

---. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York: Crown, 1991.  LC4091 .K69 1991.  Selected by Dr. Anderson.

Leonard, George Burr. Education and Ecstasy. New York: Delacorte, 1968. LA210 .L46.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Meier, Deborah. The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem. Boston: Becan, 1995. LA217.2 .M45 1995.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Paley, Vivian Gussin.  White Teacher. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1979.  LC2771 .P34.  Selected by Dr. Anderson.

Peters, William. A Class Divided: Then and Now. New Haven: Yale UP, 1987.  LB3062 .P42 1987.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Postman, Neil and Charles Weingartner. Teaching as a Subversive Activity.  New York, Delacorte, 1969.  LA217 .P6.  Selected by Dr. Grineski.

Assistance with this list provided by:

       Dr. Beth Anderson, Professor, Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Dr. George Davis, Professor/Director, Regional Science Center, Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Dr. Steven Grineski, Professor, Foundations of Education, Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Compiled by Carol H. Sibley, Curriculum Librarian, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Moorhead, Minnesota, 9/02.