Learning by Heart

One of the world's top experts on education delivers an uplifting memoir on his own personal failures and successes as he sought to become a good learner and teacher.

Tony Wagner is an eminent education specialist: he's taught at Harvard and MIT; done significant work for the Gates Foundation; and speaks across the country and all over the world. But before he found his success, Tony was kicked out of middle school, expelled from high school, and dropped out of two colleges. Learning by Heart is his powerful account of his years as a student and teacher.

After struggling in both roles, he learned a radically different approach to individualized learning—one based on understanding each student's core questions and interests and strengthening his or her intrinsic motivations. From being labeled a failure in high school to experiencing the joy of learning at summer camp, from the years he spent working at odd jobs after dropping out of college, to his early, formative years as a teacher, his story is one that sheds light on several critical issues facing today's educators and parents, and reminds us that trial and error, resilience, and respect for the individual, is at the very heart of all teaching and learning.

About the Author

Tony Wagner is an eminent education specialist: he has taught at every grade level from high school through graduate school; worked at Harvard; done significant work for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and speaks across the country and all over the world.

Previously, Wagner held a variety of positions at Harvard University over the course of more than twenty years, including four years as an Expert in Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab and the founder and codirector, for a decade, of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also spent time as a high school teacher, K–8 principal, university professor in teacher education, was the founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility, and is the author of Creating Innovators and The Global Achievement Gap and coauthor of Most Likely to Succeed.