Herbert Kohl (education)

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For the article about the U.S. Senator, see Herbert Kohl (senator).

Herbert Kohl is an educator best known for his advocacy of progressive alternative education and as the acclaimed author of more than thirty books on education, including:

36 Children
The Question Is College: On Finding and Doing Work You Love
From Archetype to Zeitgeist: Powerful Ideas for Powerful Thinking
The Open Classroom
The Discipline of Hope: Learning from a Lifetime of Teaching
Growing Minds: On Becoming a Teacher
I Won't Learn from You: And Other Thoughts on Creative Maladjustment
Should We Burn Babar? Essays on Children's Literature and the Power of Stories
A Grain of Poetry: How to Read Contemporary Poems and Make Them a Part of Your Life
Making Theater: Developing Plays With Young People
Stupidity and Tears: Teaching and Learning in Troubled Times
The View from the Oak: The Private Worlds of Other Creatures (National Book Award for Children's Literature)
On Teaching
Book of Puzzlements
The Age of Complexity
Reading, How to: A People's Guide to Alternatives to Learning and Testing
Nurturing one's dreams: A review of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of hope

In addition, he has co-edited A Call to Character: A Family Treasury, in response to William Bennett's book, The Children's Book of Virtues.

Mr. Kohl received a Bachelor's degree in philosophy from Harvard University; a Master's degree in special education from Teacher's College, Columbia University; and was a Henry Fellow at Oxford in philosophy. He began his teaching career in Harlem in 1962. In his distinguished career, he has taught every grade from kindergarten through college.

Kohl served as the Eugene Lang Visiting Professor for Social Change at Swarthmore College during the 2005-06 academic year. Prior to that, Kohl was the director of the Institute for Social Justice and Education in the University of San Francisco's School of Education. He has also worked as a Senior Fellow at the Open Society Institute.