Intellectual Character: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Get It

Intellectual Character is a significant book in a personal & historical sense. It reveals new ideas about the mind that are compelling and relevant to any teacher, reader or student of the human condition. My first copy was "permanently borrowed " Thanks for making more -- this book matters! David Yorka Columbus, Ohio

I've been teaching for 30 years and teaching a critical thinking course for high school students for the last five. I've got a shelf full of books on teaching thinking: this book is one I'm going to be going back to. It's one of the most clearly written and most useful books I've ever seen for teachers interested in helping their students become better thinkers. Ritchhart, who is associated with Project Zero at Harvard, provides both a very clear conceptual framework and lots of well-drawn classroom examples in a variety of disciplines, and from a variety of levels from elementary to senior high. Ritchhart draws upon and synthesizes ideas from a number of other critical thinking gurus such as Richard Paul, Howard Gardner, and Shari Tishman. His overall goal is to help teachers establish what he refers to as a "culture of thinking" in the classroom. There are chapters which explore how to get started, how to go about establishing classroom routines that promote critical thinking, how to build throughlines which encourage students to experience and sustain "intellectual character." Each chapter has a kind of executive summary that wraps up key ideas in chart form. The book is very well written: it is intelligent without being condescending, well-grounded in research without being pedantic, and it is remarkably free of educationese. Reading it is like having a conversation with a valued colleague. Even when what he has to say is familiar, it is so well expressed that it gives pleasure. This book is an excellent resource both for younger teachers who sense that education ought to be more than a forced march through mountains of content, and for more experienced teachers who are looking to get better at what they already do well.

"Curiosity propels us to explore our world..." Dreams do come true. Seeking to strengthen my capacity to help students understand the tools and journeys of their brains, I turned to Intellectual Character. In Dr. Ritchhart's words, I found an edifying, brilliant compass. Building on his ground breaking thinking disposition research, Dr. Ritchhart profiles how teachers can nurture curiosity, open mindedness, metacognition, seeking truth and understanding, strategic thinking, and skepticism within learners. He does this with integrity by sharing his own teaching and learning experiences and by giving readers a vivid and clarifying window into the intellectual interactions between five teachers and their students. These classroom portraits reveal the language educators should employ/model to "prompt, prime, and pattern the thinking of students." Additionally, Dr. Ritchhart's case studies encourage readers to examine the "red threads" of our teaching...to think about the driving force is our classrooms...to ponder what connects and motivates our teaching. One of my favorite passages furthers this idea: "The development of students' intellectual character ultimately depends on teachers' convictions, dedication, and belief in the importance of thinking to students' current understanding, future employment, and long-term success both in the subject area and in life. It is ony when teachers possess thinking-rich red threads to tie together practice and breathe life into them through their own disposition toward thinking that the development of students' intellectual character becomes a natural, energizing, and meaningful endeavor for students and teachers alike." As I forge new vistas of my thinking about literacy learning, I turn to Intellectual Character to chisel my plans for what I call brain show and tell. Modeling the work of thinking is humbling. Reading, for example, is not an easy demonstrator sport. Our work as readers is not visible to others. But, by telling our students why and how we read and write, we might just be able to show them our brain waves. The fireworks and miracle of thought are gloriously blueprinted by Dr. Ritchhart. His work provides me with insights, ancedotes, and a kindred spirit to chart my course. Bravo - and heartfelt thanks!

If found this book a wonderful, inspiring, and useful read. The author's style was engaging and personable. The many anecdotes and stories really grabbed and held my attention. In terms of style, the book reminded me of The Good High School by Sara Lawarence Lightfoot in that the author brought me right into the classroom and opened my eyes so that I could see more and understand teaching at a deeper level. Ritchhart writes in the same kind of warm and gracious style as Lightfoot, not your typical research writing at all.In content, I found the book has some similarities to Emotional Intelligence (EI). While Intellectual Character isn't the same thing as EI, both books really expand our view of what it means to be smart. At the same time, both books send the message that we are often missing the mark in educating our children. If you liked Emotional Intelligence, this book will be a good follow-up read. If you wanted more of a classroom and education angle to EI, you'll find it here.One last feature of the book that deserves mention. I found the end-of-chapter "Key ideas" synthesis very useful in consolidating my understanding of the big ideas of the chapter. I also found them helpful to refer back to as I was reading if I wanted to review something. It's a really great tool. These syntheses, which appear at the end of every chapter, are also a way for me to share these ideas easily with others. That's an important mark of a good book to me, how much I want to share it, and this book certainly fits the bill.

As a parent and teacher, I'm concerned about providing my students and my daughters with the tools they need to really be successful and to do good in the world. However, I often worry about my ability to do this within the current climate of high-stakes testing. I found this book both helpful and encouraging in confronting these issues. The book begins by laying out important issues for parents and teachers to think about: Just what does it mean to be smart? What is it that we should be educating for? This book does more than present these issues in an accessible and engaging way, however. It tells stories of teachers, working in a variety of different types of schools, who are really doing the work of getting students to think and develop their intelligence. This is the heart of the book and very engaging. After reading chapter 4, "Creating Cultures of Thinking," I know I'll start the school year off in a different way next year. The chapter on "thinking routines" has already been useful to me and the colleagues with whom I shared it. Throughout the book, the stories and examples from real classrooms are woven together with useful explanation and analysis that helped me to think about what this kind of teaching would look like in my own classroom. While I would have liked more presented from the standpoint of what parents can do, I really liked the vision of education the book presents and will find this useful in talking with other parents and with the teachers at my daughters' school. I'd love to see the debate about education moved from high scores on tests to teaching for intellectual character as Ritchhart suggests.