You can access our Wakelet Chat Artifact using this LINK
Book Reflection by Mary Howard
On 12/14/23, we were honored to welcome Regie Routman to #G2Great chat to discuss her new book, The Heart-Centered Teacher: Restoring Hope, Joy, and Possibility in Uncertain Times (2024, Routledge). Regie was also our guest on 1/11/18 for Literacy Essentials: Engagement, Equity, and Excellence for All Learners (2018, Stenhouse) and a follow-up “Blast from the Past” chat to revisit Literacy Essentials on 10/20/22.
Since this was the final chat of 2023, we decided to do something different this week. Yesterday, my friend and co-moderator Fran McVeigh wrote a lovely #G2Great chat reflection. We both agreed that this book was deserving of double attention, so for the first time in our eight-year chat history, we decided to share a second tribute. In this post, I’ll focus exclusively on The Heart-Centered Teacher rather than the chat that Fran covered so beautifully. My goal is to highlight why I believe every teacher needs this book and why it means so much to me personally. I consider The Heart-Centered Teacher the #1 MUST-HAVE professional book as reflected in my endorsement and Amazon Review.
In 1988, Regie Routman became a trusted friend I had yet to meet. That was when her first book was published: Transitions: From Literature to Literacy (Heinemann). Even though I was in my sixteenth year in education, she spoke to everything that I hold dear both then and now and further sharpened my lens of understanding. I knew that I had found a kindred spirit. From that day on, I renewed and extended those beliefs with each new Regie Routman masterpiece, as our long-distance-never-met-yet friendship continued to grow along with my knowledge, insight, and unwavering desire to know and do more as time went on. More recently and with deep gratitude to Twitter, we became digital friends and in 2018 I met Regie for the first time face-to-face over her famous Strawberry tart. I’m forever grateful that our book friendship that began from afar thirty-five years ago transformed into a treasured real-life friendship.
In my book endorsement, I described The Heart-Centered Teacher as “a personal love letter in the perfect book with the perfect words at the perfect time.” I can’t think of a better description of a book that has brought so much professional and personal joy into my life since the day I received my personalized copy. Regie quickly brought the title and spirit of The Heart Centered Teacher to life for me in her opening, “Living a Heart-Centered Life: A Letter to Readers” with the words that helped me to understand the book WHY I embraced as I read:
“I want to lift you up–to nourish your heart, mind, and spirit.” (p. xix)
By seeking to nourish my heart, mind, and spirit in an age that is riddled with challenges, Regie gave me and everyone who has read this beautiful gift that is designed to touch the whole of who we are in an age where it’s needed most. Educational books often focus on a professional view. While that is no doubt critical, I’m not sure it’s enough in challenging times. Regie understood that and thus, it’s “the perfect book with the perfect words at the perfect time.”
In her wisdom, Regie crafted a mixture of “heart, mind, and spirit” that would not just enrich our thinking but also awaken all that it means to be engaged in a world that is clearly under stress. I have come to realize through rereading and frequent referencing that this is what has been missing most for me in these post-pandemic times we live. As educators in a time of crisis, we are struggling to find ourselves professionally but we are also struggling to find ourselves personally. As we stand on the precipice of uncertainty, I now understand that it is impossible to separate one from the other when they are mutually supportive and sometimes even mutually broken. In times of challenge, one can breed that challenge into the other. If I don’t feel whole personally, then how could I possibly feel whole professionally?
I fell in love with the design of the book from the start. Regie made it easy for me to access the words that would nourish MY heart, mind, and spirit. Her table of contents reads like an invitational directional guide that allows us to be the decision-makers based on what we need most at that time. Each chapter with its carefully considered sections feels like a personal-professional mix celebration that allows me to choose where I need to go. When I’m struggling with a sense of loss, I can go to Chapter 7 and explore any or all sections. If I need wise advice on developing professional knowledge, I can turn to Chapter 5 and explore any or all sections. Depending on what I need on any given day, I can easily find my way to wisdom and unwavering encouragement. Her love letter keeps the promise with each reading and I find myself feeling ‘lifted up and nourished from a heart, mind, and spirit’ perspective. (p. xix)
A beautiful thread that ties The-Heart Centered Teacher and each of the chapter sections together is done in glorious Regie Routman style. Through storytelling drawn from her own life experiences, she eloquently and often courageously shares those stories and then uses them to make connections to the personal and professional points that follow – often weaving in both at once. Her stories offer a loving springboard to envision the critical features of an expansive view of comprehensive student-focused “heart-centered teaching.” She takes us with her on a journey decades in the making and writes with candor and humility as each story translates into insight we can use to maneuver those challenges. I often found myself mentally creating related in-the-head stories that personalized and magnified her message and ideas even more.
Through Regie’s willingness to open her heart to her own stories of joy and pain and then apply that in personal and professional lessons, we learn how to pull from our life experiences. Her generosity in sharing intimate details of her life is a model for what courage in action looks like. The Heart-Centered Teacher is raw honesty between covers. I return to these pages of wisdom often for solace and inspiration, as I have done so many times before and will continue to do.
As I close, I’d like to share one more quote. Regie’s book touched me as an educator and a human, so there are an unlimited number of possibilities for sharing. But I’d like to draw back to the opening in Living a Heart-Centered Life: A Letter to Readers for one more look at the WHY that guides my thinking as I read and reread every exquisite page:
“At this moment in time, the whole world feels broken. And yet. Living a good life is still possible– and necessary. Heart-Centeredness is a way into the good life and is a major theme of this book. It is that peaceful state where we live our core values with compassion, generosity, and authenticity–even in the midst of sadness and strife.” (p.xx)
Whether we are seeking to find a path forward professionally or personally or merge them together in concert as life often does, ‘living our core values in our schools and in our lives with compassion, generosity, and authenticity feels like the one thing that we can control in a time where control feels as if it has been stripped from the very fiber of the educational landscape. But Regie’s words across The Heart-Centered Teacher have given me a sense of direction.
Yes, the how, where, what, with whom, and under what circumstances will vary for each of us. But if we hold tight to Regie’s wise words based on what we are seeking, I know with certainty that we can find our way to The Heart-Centered Teacher that Regie so eloquently illuminates. It is compassion, generosity, and authenticity that our teachers and children need most now and so richly deserve. The Heart-Centered Teacher shows us what that might look like while Regie has instilled the belief that she trusts us to remain at the helm of our choices.
And THAT, my friends, is why this “perfect book with the perfect words at the perfect time” is so desperately needed right now. Regie honors each of us as caring and capable at a time when the constant message coming from every direction is as far a departure from that as one can get. I for one feel energized and strengthened by Regie’s reframing grounded in flexibility and respect for each of us as individuals. As I share these words, I find myself thinking about what would be possible if Regie Routman were in charge of the educational universe… But for now, The Heart-Centered Teacher is a worthy start!
In closing, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give Regie the final word and end this post just as Regie ended her book in the Afterwords:
“What we do, what you do matters. Changing the life of even one child is monumental. Here’s a crucial lesson I learned over many decades. I have had many encouragers along the way but some naysayers too. There will always be people telling you it can’t be done, that it’s too risky, too costly, too difficult. Ignore those voices. Listen to your inner voice. Start dreaming. It hasn’t been done yet – until you do it.” (p. 262)
Thank you, Regie, for being our cheerleader, our confidant, our inner voice, and a fellow seeker of the possibilities we may not even yet know exist both within and around us. But your heart map will help us make that glorious journey!
LINKS
Order the Heart-Centered Teacher from Routledge
Companion Website: Resources from Regie
Our #G2Great Wakelet of our chat with Regie
Fran McVeigh Blog Post on The Heart-Centered Teacher
1/11/18 Literacy Essentials (Blog Post by Mary Howard)
10-20-22 Blast From the Past: Literacy Essentials (Blog post by Mary Howard)