Reach for Greatness

Yong Zhao again provokes and challenges our thinking by sounding a call to immediate action. Our education system must fundamentally change to meet the needs of our children. With insightful personal stories and penetrating analysis of our current education system, Zhao, at once challenging, provocative, and optimistic, shows us that personalizable education models are the way to transform our education system from one that supports mediocrity to one which magnifies the passions and talents of each student.

A bold and compelling call for a wholesale shift in our education priorities. With powerful stories and examples, Dr. Zhao lays out an aspirational goal for our schools: empower each child to create a distinctive path to greatness by reinforcing strengths and unleashing passions. Read this, and you’ll be inspired!

Reach for Greatness is a must-read for the truly professional educator today. Common sense and expert practice are hard to find. Yong Zhao brings insight and intelligence in arguing for a dramatic shift of thinking about schooling that is fit for today’s world. This book helps give shape to a robust narrative sorely needed for every student.

Are you keen for the real depth and substance of an education that helps all students to reach their full potential but tired of empty promises for “personalized learning”? If so, Yong Zhao′s Reaching for Greatness is the book for you! With vivid examples and carefully scaffolded argumentation, Zhao shows how what he calls “personalizable education” offers an exciting and practical future for all of our students truly to become great. Zhao′s writing is so full of whimsy and humor that you can′t wait to see what this wonderful alchemist of educational change is going to say next. Best of all, this gem of a book is one that not only all teachers, but also a rising generation of students, will cherish.

Yong Zhao pulls us from our narrow view of what education is and reminds us what it needs to be. Personalized education (as opposed to the ubiquitous and limited notion of personalized learning) is essential for recognizing and cultivating the diverse strengths of our students for their own good and the good of society. Poignant stories from Yong′s global travels to schools make the research in this call to action relatable and accessible for all educational stakeholders. This is an important read!

In Reach for Greatness, Yong Zhao makes the urgent case for empowering every young person to recognize their strengths, realize their talents, and follow their passions. Furthermore, his idea of empowerment is centered on the young person taking control of their own learning – a critical shift from the dominant model in which education is done to the student. Clear, compelling, evidence-based, and practical, this is an important book.

Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas and a professor in Educational Leadership at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education in Australia. He previously served as the Presidential Chair, Associate Dean, and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he was also a Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. Prior to Oregon, Yong Zhao was University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education, Michigan State University, where he also served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology, executive director of the Confucius Institute, as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the International Academy of Education.