Book excerpt: Richard Lakin's collection is geared to teachers, principals, parents, and all those concerned with making schools more loving and effective for each child. He presents a close look at his school staff working together to create both a caring, challenging learning environment and a real partnership between school and home. In today's high stakes and test obsessed world, Teaching as an Act of Love encourages teachers as they remember why they entered teaching in the first place-to zero in on the individual child, "the whole child" and encourage the love of learning. In the 55 informative and optimistic pieces in the book, Richard proposes more personalized "smaller caring schools of choice," where the child comes first, where bureaucracy, testing and NCLB are minimized and where a loving school climate and kindness prevail