"William Ayers is an always-astute writer on the relationship between teaching and society; he is critical, funny, philosophical, poetic, warm."
—Rethinking Schools
"Ayers’s short book is not short of encouraging vision, and his diagnosis of some of the systemic problems of education is insightful. "
—Community Literacy Journal
“Written as a message to prospective teachers, Ayers highlights the complexity of the work of educators while also offering practical advice. His advice pushes prospective educators to consider both broad issues of the field as well as daily decision-making in the classroom. The book is simultaneously candid about the challenges and complexity of teaching and encouraging about its possibilities to those entering the field.”
—Teachers College Record
“An absolute 'must read' for anyone contemplating teaching as a profession...unreservedly recommended as a core addition to college and university library Teacher Education collections.”
—Midwest Book Review
“ About Becoming a Teacher reads as a combination of a pre-game pep talk, thought-provoking excursion, and vivid memoir woven together in a brief 85 pages. Ayers encourages the reader, presumably anyone considering entering the teaching profession, to ponder how their deeply held values and personal mission regarding the purposes of schooling intersect with the creation of classrooms that honor the 'three-dimensional' potential of the learners who inhabit them.”
—Teachers College Record
"With about Becoming a Teacher, Bill Ayers has created an invaluable tool, both for those who are pondering life as an educator and for those who are already there. As America continues to grapple with big-ticket issues like class, like gender, like race, it is also critical that teachers understand the fullness of their role in preparing our youth as much as possible for the world ahead. Read and digest this book, and know that in your hands is the gift to help and empower students, which is the greatest gift you could ever give as a teacher."
—Kevin Powell, author of The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey into Manhood
“This is a highly engaging and readable text that helps prospective teachers to consider the ethical, practical, sociological, and spiritual bases for their chosen profession. Against a necessary backdrop of a neoliberal critique of education, the book is chock-full of illustrative, entertaining anecdotes, great teaching and learning moments, and hard questions that help inform the highly consequential decision to become a teacher.”
― Angela Valenzuela, Professor of Education, University of Texas at Austin and editor of Growing Critically Conscious Teachers
“I'm excited to add a new guide to my ‘must-read’ list for teachers-to-be. In characteristically straightforward, honest, and empathetic tones, Ayers lays out the fundamental questions that should keep us all up at night—teachers and non-teachers alike. This is a delight of a little book.”
― Eve L. Ewing, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago
"Wow, do I wish I could have read this book, not only when I was just starting to teach, but every year since. William Ayers asks questions that we commonly associate with aspiring teachers, but artfully poses responses that dissociate us from taken-for-granted notions of education, even for the most veteran among us. Rather than instruct in how to become any prevailing image of 'teacher,' this breathtaking book surfaces the contradictions of teaching towards democracy and invites us to never stop reimagining ourselves as teachers who advance justice precisely by troubling the very act of teaching."
―Kevin Kumashiro, Kevin Kumashiro Consulting, and author of Bad Teacher! How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture
