Review: Why Teach? In Defense of a Real Education

 

Edmundson, Mark. Why Teach?: In Defense of a Real Education. Bloomsbury, 2013. 

Why Teach is the second in the “Why?” Trilogy.  It is just as engaging, informative, and plain-speaking as Why Read? and Why Write?.

Professor Edmundson teaches English at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. In a series of essays, some of which were published elsewhere, Edmundson reports on the challenges of teaching in our contemporary setting.  For example, universities have become consumer and entertainment-oriented entities.  One symptom of this is the student evaluation. Edmundson’s discussion about the student evaluation and what it tends to report leads into a fruitful discussion of how the professor must give information in an engaging and entertaining way, but not expect too much retention or critical interaction from the students with the material presented. Instructors that expect students to actually, like, read the material, or who offer necessary candid correction or criticism often leads to unhappy consumers which leads negative evaluations. A concern about negative evaluations inhibits teaching.  

Another challenge is for teachers to avoid offering “close readings.” An example of a close reading is interpreting Dickens through the writings of Marx or Derrida.  This kind of interpretive analysis takes away from the opportunity of the story itself to impact the student in unexpected ways. The close reading brings judgment and condemnation upon the author rather than truly trying to understand what the author is trying to say through his story or essay. 

Edmundson advocates for real education.  By this he means, providing students with opportunities to encounter thinking, ideas, values, and historical situations via reading that are different from the students, and, which challenge the student’s normal way of thinking, ideas, values, and expectations.  The real education comes through critical thinking and engagement which inspires the student to grow intellectually and spiritually. As Edmundson illustrates, the task of real education is not nearly as easy as it sounds.  

I appreciated Edmundson’s observations on teaching, students, and the status of the university in American culture.  The one thing that I found missing was an essay about what to teach in humanities classes.  Is there a canon that sets the standard? Does each teacher bring his own choices to the class or is there a series of time-tested classics that students ought to engage with?  Edmundson refers regularly to Plato, Socrates, Dickens, Thoreau, Freud and Schopenhauer. I would like to read his thoughts on the actual content that a humanities student ought to interact with and should this be standardized? Read education is not only about the excitement of being challenged but also having a series of conversation partners to take with you when you continue with life after school.

I think anyone who is concerned about education, teacher or student or parent, will appreciate this book and what it offers.