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“Vella writes persuasively about the power of listening as the predominant tool for effective teaching…. This is a book that broadens cultural horizons, tears down superficial boundaries, and presents excellent practical ideas for all adult educators.” (NACADA Journal)

“Anyone who wants to help make the world a better place should read this book. Jane Vella is an educator par excellence. But the message of this book is not for academics; it is for the people who will help things change on the ground. This book is about reality— real people, real situations, and what I call real development.” (James P. Grant, executive director, UNICEF)

“Adult educators, because they are also lifelong learners, will continually cheer, “YES!” as they read Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach. The management and literacy trainers in our organization need this book as they prepare to become better facilitators of learning” (Margaret A. Price, director of field services, Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc.)

“Easy to read and contains a wealth of information on how we can develop the skills and attitudes that will make a difference in the way we teach our medical students, our residents, and our patients. Medicine is changing drastically and we need tools that help us return to the essence of our art. This book is one of them. Let’s use it.” (Rodrigo Escalona, M.D., assistant professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine.)

“The deep lessons…[this book] contains creep up on you and flower into joyful insights. Jane Vella is one of the most gifted adult educators I have known.” (from the foreword by Malcolm S. Knowles, professor emeritus, NorthCarolina State University)

Praise for the first edition of Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach

The book is highly recommended reading for every trainer in the Habitat for Humanity organization.

“The deep lessons [this book] contains creep up on you and flower into joyful insights. Jane Vella is one of the most gifted adult educators I have known.”
–from the Foreword by Malcolm S. Knowles, professor emeritus, North Carolina State University

“The stories furnish ‘real life’ support for the effectiveness of this approach to adult learning in different cultures and give the reader the opportunity to vicariously experience popular education in action.”
–Adult Education Quarterly

“Recommended for anyone interested in education and training at any level.”
–Library Journal

Television, games, the Internet, peers and other forces shape children’s morality, but consultant and educator Borba (Parents Do Make a Difference) argues that it is parents who provide the most enduring modeling and instruction. Kids, she asserts, should be fortified against the onslaught of increasingly negative cultural influences violent video games, nasty music lyrics by parental involvement and guidance. Designed as a guide for parents and caregivers of children from three to 15 years old, the book describes an epidemic deficiency in the moral development of American kids and outlines seven virtues (Empathy, Conscience, Self-Control, Respect, Kindness, Tolerance and Fairness) to be engendered in children. Devoting an identically designed chapter to each virtue, she defines the virtue in accessible and secular language. She then provides a test for parents to assess their children and offers practical actions parents can take on a daily basis. Throughout, her tone is pragmatic and optimistic. She advises parents to make sure they are providing a moral example that they would want their children to follow in other words, watch their own behavior. She advises parents to be direct about their own moral beliefs and encourage specific virtuous behaviors. Borba concludes the book with a helpful resource list. A packed storehouse, this helpful, informative and hopeful book will be dog-eared over years of consultation. (July)Forecast: Many readers will recognize Borba’s name; as an expert on “bullying,” she makes frequent TV appearances, and on Oprah’s Mom Online she is the “Moral Intelligence Pro.” This book is timely; given public debates on media violence, and the prevention of juvenile crime, it’s likely to be widely read and referenced.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Writing with confident authority and providing good, current references, Borba offers “a step by step blueprint for enhancing your child’s moral capacity” the ethical compass that charts a youngster’s moral fate. She first defines seven intertwining “essential virtues of moral intelligence and solid character”: empathy, conscience, self-control (these first three form a “moral core”), respect, kindness, tolerance, and fairness. Ensuing chapters suggest how to incubate, nurture, and master individual virtues using realistic, workable methods. The book recalls Becky A. Bailey’s Easy To Love, Difficult To Discipline (LJ 2/15/00), which frames “loving guidance” in seven-part structures (seven values for living, seven powers of self control, etc.). It’s also similar to Borba’s own Parents Do Make a Difference (Jossey-Bass, 1999). All these books have noble goals yet require a high initial investment of energy and time; this is not a quick fix but a way of living. Of course, many of those who really need Borba’s book won’t read it; if more people mastered these traits, the world would be a different and better place. Recommended for larger public libraries. Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Hartford
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.