Many have been generous with intellectual and emotional support as I worked on this book. Thank you to David Cohen, Gerald Early, Carole Edelsky, Brian Ellerbeck, Steve Griffin, Annette Henry, Deborah Hicks, David Jardine, Jay Lemke, John Jacob Lensmire, Sarah Lensmire, Janet Miller, Janet Navarro, Jeremy Price, Jane Ritger, Michael W. Smith, and Jim Swaim. Special thanks to James Garrison and John Willinsky for their ongoing support of my work.

My colleagues in the Department of Education at Washington University in St. Louis have created a stimulating place for me to learn and write. Thanks especially to Phyllis Balcerzak, Diane Beals, Garrett Duncan, Mary Ann Dzuback, Donna Gardner, James Wertsch, and the late Arthur Wirth. I also want to acknowledge the impact of the larger Washington University community, and its meanings and values, on my life and work: ting-a-ling.

Finally, my thanks to Matthew Cooper and Emmanuel Harris II. Their friendship has sustained me and is, perhaps, the strongest argument I have for the worthiness of sharing our stories and rehearsing new ways of being and acting in the world, together.

I gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Academy of Education and its Spencer Fellowship Program.

Acknowledgments to the 2024 edition

At UMN Publishing Services, thank you to Emma Molls for her support of this project and especially to Laureen Boutang for her careful work on this 2nd edition. And thank you to Nathan Snaza for his beautiful foreword–it fills my heart.

A poem written by my (then) eight-year-old daughter, Sarah, was used as part of the cover of the first edition of Powerful Writing, Responsible Teaching.  I was able to find—in a folder in a box in the basement—Sarah’s original text.  The beginning of her poem is shared, here, to acknowledge how wonderful it was to have Sarah’s writing be a part of the original book.