See what people are saying…
“What does it mean to be educated? “Knowing how to be happy” may not be a common response to this question. Yet, happiness is what we all seek in life. Steve Banno, Jr. provides a blueprint for educators and those who work with youth on how to teach the “soft skills” of success in life: happiness and altruism. This book expertly intertwines the science of happiness, educational research, personal experience, and suggested lessons to provide a strong argument for teaching happiness in primary and secondary schools. Banno illustrates a different model for education than the model currently provided by the academic industrial complex. Teaching What Matters helps those of us who have thought, “I wish someone had taught me this earlier,” put words into actions by teaching the next generation the true meaning of success.”
— Aminda J. O’Hare, PhD, Director of Neuroscience and Assistant Professor of Psychological Science, Weber State University
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“Steve Banno, Jr. has written a groundbreaking book for educators that will surely transform the lives of their students. In Teaching What Matters he skillfully and comprehensively integrates what we know from Positive Psychology about how to live a happy and meaningful life and translates it into a ready-made course that may be the most impactful course one ever teaches. Through his careful weaving together of evidence-based research with thoughtful activities and reflections that invite students into hands-on experiences, the course laid out in this book inspires the best in students and empowers them to discover for themselves what it means to live an authentic, valued, and meaningful life.”
— Beth Kurland, PhD, clinical psychologist and author of Dancing on the Tightrope: Transcending the Habits of Your Mind and Awakening to Your Fullest Life
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“In a world of endless access to infinite data, we need to free teachers to do what they set out to do in the first place-help us raise connected, engaged and healthy children.”
— Seth Godin, author of This is Marketing
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“There is a lot of heavy lifting in education. One of the biggest challenges is helping students grow into their true potential. Steve has created a practical classroom guide to doing exactly that. This book will help focus on what truly matters enabling students not only to be successful, but to make the world a better place.”
— Gregg Bruno, Principal
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About the book:
Teaching What Matters will provide the agency for teenagers to enhance happiness and kindness in their lives and in the lives of others. These lessons will energize and empower teachers and older teens to learn the important things not usually taught in school. Teaching What Matters invites teachers and teens to enhance their well-being, promote kindness, and compassion for themselves and others.
Teaching What Matters acknowledges the pathos that exists in the world. However, the lessons enjoined in book invite young people to cultivate their altruistic proclivities. Civil Rights icon John Lewis encouraged us to remember that love and a better society can be strengthened when he wrote:
“Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. […] Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. And if you follow your truth down road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.”
