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As suggested by the title's thought-provoking imagery, this book combines the author's personal story, philosophy, and pedagogy. Hannaford was raised in a British Christian home but became an atheist. After studying at Cambridge, he became an officer in the military. A controversial letter he wrote addressing the Irish Civil War caused him to be committed to a psychiatric ward in the 1970s. He received a revelation that brought him back to believing in God during his stay. His military career over, he taught math at an international school. His epiphany, or metanoia, changed his teaching. He approaches math education as a moral imperative to foster peace. The essays comprising the book are drawn from Facebook postings and supplementary material.
The book argues that two halves of the human brain illustrate both a fundamental problem or disagreement as well as its solution. The right side is described as colonial, routine, or domesticating. The left side is viewed as adventurous, mistake-correcting, and messy. Rote memorization and producing correct outcomes (right brain activities) conflict with the sort of questions the left brain's experiential approach desires. These two disagreeing sides of every brain are manifest in societal factions, namely in tendencies toward fundamentalism and democracy. Where fundamentalism insists on certainty, democracy allows for protest and dissent. Like the brain's differences occasion it to work at overcoming them, teaching kids how to enlist their left brain to resist the right brain instinct toward order and correctness at any cost (war) nurtures independent thinkers capable of resolving disagreement and seeking peace in the wider world. Hannaford calls these learners messiahs because this kind of learning requires religiosity and an openness to God. The right of children to be honest and ask questions is reiterated many times throughout the book as the means of coming closer to truth and agreement, not only in their own minds but civically. "Truth is the direction in which we are able to learn more."
Just as Hannaford's teaching method recommends reading texts out loud and saying back, in one's own words, what has been understood, the Facebook group, "Children for an honest, just, and fair world," acts as a classroom where Hannaford is as much a student as a teacher, showing his process. The finished product necessarily includes missteps, mistakes, and last-minute additions essential to the learning process. The book demonstrates the method it advocates.
The outcomes of the process do not come across as well. However, letters between Hannaford and Facebook group members show worldwide responsiveness to the technique. A Spanish language edition of a pedagogical tool he helps write further proves the method's effectiveness. This kind of proof is not the book's primary concern, though. Instead, it criticizes today's emphasis on research and validation by accepted authority figures over experience and dialogical learning as its own reward. In incorporating and engaging with a variety of ancient and modern texts, as well as in correspondence, Hannaford shows a true comprehension of what he's read and learned from people, and not simply how these things defend his point. Uncertainty, doubt, and admitting one might be wrong are important values the book exemplifies in its evasion of definitive conclusions.
Scholastic in its scope, the language is accessible. However, the book's format and length are a bit overwhelming. Still, the book, meant as a practical tool, speaks to current challenges to education, namely fake news, cancel culture, and social media, that dissuade honesty and truth. Hannaford's book is a step toward more enlightened teaching.