Despite the popular misconception children are not blank slates ready for teachers to make a chalky imprint that will prepare them for the rest of their lives. Kids deserve more credit than that. Children of all ages have deeply complex inner lives a truth that the modern educational system largely ignores. Good teachers strive to know who their students are-not to mold them into something they are not. Teaching to the Soul delves into the personal educational experiences of fourteen different children of varied cultural backgrounds. Each chapter starts with a poem written by the student follows with a poem analysis that shows us something about who this child is-the soul of the child-and-finishes with research on a relevant pedagogical issue.

Daniel Bachhuber a retired Montessori elementary teacher writes fiction nonfiction and poetry. He has published over sixty single poems and numerous articles about education as well as a teaching timeline for the study of children's literature. In 1990 he won the Billee Murray Denny prize for a long poem placing first among more than 2 500 entries. The poem "Mozart's G Minor Symphony " describes the miracle of Mozart'sgenius in the context of his dysfunctional family. Placing first in the Minnesota Voices Project in 1999 he used "Mozart's G Minor Symphony" as the centerpiece