Lighting Fires: How the Passionate Teacher Engages Adolescent Writers

Punahou is not your typical school. Based in Hawaii, it's the largest independent school west of the Mississippi, with such a mixed student population that an ethnographic study based on last names would be impossible. Nor is Joseph Tsujimoto your typical educator. For him, mastery of his persona is just as important as mastery of his subject and his teaching. "Passion, as much as knowledge," he insists, "is plainly manifest in excellent teachers. But true passion can only arise out of each teacher's unique personality."

In Lighting Fires, Tsujimoto reveals his own unique power as a teacher through descriptions of his many classroom interactions with his students. We grasp the uniqueness of his mind as he argues for writing courses that begin with poetry . . . allows his students to select their own topics and forms of discourse in their take-home exam . . . encourages his students to record his "principles and working assumptions" through dictation . . . teaches about narrative, speech, and argumentative writing through novel methods. Throughout-to define, explain, or exemplify ideas and points of view-Tsujimoto relies on his students' writings, which in and of themselves make Lighting Fires a persuasive read.

Inspirational as well as instructional, this unusual book is one of but a very few to include the teacher's persona as an important element of teaching. Writing teachers at any level will find it energizing.