The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination (A Peter Davison Book)

**From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of __Children of Crisis__, a profound examination of how listening to stories promotes learning and self-discovery.** As a professor emeritus at Harvard University, a renowned child psychiatrist, and the author of more than forty books, including __The Moral Intelligence of Children__, Robert Coles knows better than anyone the transformative power of learning and literature on young minds. In this "persuasive" book (__The New York Times Book Review__), Coles convenes a virtual symposium of college, law, and medical school students to explore the phenomenon of storytelling as a source of values and character. Here are transcriptions of classroom conversations in which Coles and his students discuss the impact of particular works of literature on their moral development. Here also are Coles's intimate personal reflections on his experiences in the civil rights movement, his child psychiatry practice,... From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Children of Crisis , a profound examination of how listening to stories promotes learning and self-discovery. As a professor emeritus at Harvard University, a renowned child psychiatrist, and the author of more than forty books, including The Moral Intelligence of Children , Robert Coles knows better than anyone the transformative power of learning and literature on young minds. In this “persuasive” book ( The New York Times Book Review ), Coles convenes a virtual symposium of college, law, and medical school students to explore the phenomenon of storytelling as a source of values and character. Here are transcriptions of classroom conversations in which Coles and his students discuss the impact of particular works of literature on their moral development. Here also are Coles’s intimate personal reflections on his experiences in the civil rights movement, his child psychiatry practice, and his interactions with his own literary mentors including William Carlos Williams and L.E. Sissman. The life lessons learned from these stories are of special resonance to doctors and teachers looking to apply them in classroom and clinical environments. The rare public intellectual to be honored with a MacArthur Award, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a National Humanities Medal, Robert Coles is a true national treasure, and The Call of Stories is, in the words of National Book Award winner Walker Percy, “Coles at his wisest and best.” American Child Psychiatrist, Robert Coles, Tells Of The Nourishing Moral Insights That Come From Books And Reading Throughout Life. Stories And Theories -- Starting Out -- Finding A Direction -- Interlude: Bringing Poems To Medical School Teaching -- Vocational Choices And Hazards -- The Private Life -- Looking Back -- On Moral Conduct. Robert Coles. A Peter Davison Book. Includes Index.

The Call of Stories presents a study of how listening to stories promotes learning and self-discovery.

Here is Dr. Coles's study of how listening to the stories of others allows us to enter another's life, learning more about ourselves and others.

A TALL, THIN, WAN LADY with light skin, wide blue eyes, and black hair, she had a distinct presence on the psychiatric ward of the Massachusetts General Hospital, an institution otherwise devoted to medicine and surgery, where I began work early in July 1956.