I released a new teaching book this morning. It is free. If you will send your email address to me at Jhoyle@richmond.edu, I will send it to you. No catch. Or at the very bottom of this essay, there is a URL that you can use to get a downloadable version. The book is 153 pages long and, in this posting, I am going to post the first 1 ½ pages. I think that will give you a pretty good idea of whether you are interested in reading the book.
--First, here is what I have told everyone about
the new book.
I spent the past weeks, months, and years of
my life working on a book about great teaching. It
is finished. The title is Transformative
Education, because I believe that should be the goal of every course we
offer.
Suggestion 1: Read the first 20 pages and decide whether
to continue or not. By that
point, I am feel certain you will know whether this book is worth your time.
Suggestion 2: I do hope you will read the
Dedication. If nothing else, read that one page.
Favor: Without the support of a publisher, I must
rely on the help of friends/colleagues/strangers/enemies to circulate the book. If you know anyone, anyone at all, who
might be interested in better teaching, please forward it along. “Free” really means, “Without the
kindness of others, this book will never be read.”
Advice 2: Set up a Word file on your computer. When you read a suggestion or tactic
that seems helpful, cut and paste it into the file. Everyone
needs a system to keep up with ideas that you want to remember. Saying, “I like that,” probably means,
"this will be forgotten," unless you create a system to store ideas.
--I do not write here
about any accountants, but I do write about Paul Simon, Nelson Mandela,
Raphael, Martin Luther King Jr., and Doonesbury.
--I have no comparison here of any accounting
rules, but I do have a comparison of Madame Bovary and Anna
Karenina.
--Off the top of my head, my five favorite
statements discussed herein came from Bruce Springsteen, Mark Rothko, Tom
Hanks, the author Cheryl Strayed, and a man who played catcher in Major League
Baseball for 18 years.
If you have questions, let me know at
Jhoyle@richmond.edu
**
--Now, here is the beginning
1 ½ pages of the new book.
An Opening Reading
Teaching Is Personal. Fair
warning: This book will be personal
because teaching is such a personal experience.
Some books about teaching have a clinical structure like the description
of a controlled laboratory experiment involving rats and mazes. Those works can be quite beneficial, but my
writings will sound different. For me,
improving the educational experience for every student is a personal goal,
probably bordering on an obsession. I
want to encourage, guide, and assist college teachers in their quest to become
better. I never camouflage my
mission.
I do not want to overanalyze myself, but I
suspect that my desire to improve as a teacher comes, in part, from my regret
that I did not have better teachers in college.
A few were good. Several were
awful. Most were average. None were great. I was frustrated that the bad ones did not
try harder. My parents paid a
significant amount of their hard-earned money to a major university, but many
of my teachers did not seem to care whether I learned one iota. How could they settle for being mediocre at
such a vitally important responsibility?
At 18, I did not understand their lackadaisical attitude. I do not understand it any better now that I
am well past 70.
I simply want every student to have a
legitimate opportunity to earn an excellent education. I have a great appreciation for teachers who
work hard to help students think, learn, and understand. Our schools can achieve better, more in-depth
results if teachers are both willing and able to assist students in maximizing
their potential. I am always distressed
when I read of educational inefficiencies.
“At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results
indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical
thinking over four years.” (“Many
Colleges Fail in Teaching How to Think,” Douglas Belkin, Wall Street Journal,
June 6, 2017). Such failure should be
unacceptable to every person involved with college education but also to our
society as a whole. Such indictments
should lead citizens to mass at the college gates with torches and pitchforks
demanding better from us.
An Opening Reading. I grew
up in a tiny mountain town in North Carolina and attended the local Southern
Baptist church. Before every service,
the pastor or a member of the congregation would stand before the assembled
group and read a few verses, usually from the Bible. These words often served as the basis for the
comments that were to follow. At other
times, the selected reading provided inspiration or helped listeners get into
the proper frame of mind to receive the speaker’s message.
In this book, I plan to examine the day-to-day
activities of teaching. How can you
improve the learning process in your classes, not in a year or two, but right
now? How can you better educate your
students, not a few of them, but 100 percent?
Just as importantly, why does it even matter?
Given my background, I want to open this book
with a reading. I have selected a few
lines from Pat Conroy’s novel The Prince of Tides. It tells the story of Savannah and Tom Wingo,
twins who grew up in a dysfunctional family in the low country near Charleston,
South Carolina. The epilogue to this
book provides the following interaction.
Savannah speaks first and Tom replies.
She took my hand and squeezed it. “You sold yourself short. You could’ve been more than a teacher and a
coach.”
I returned the squeeze and said, “Listen to
me, Savannah. There’s no word in the
language I revere more than teacher.
None. My heart sings when a kid
refers to me as his teacher and it always has.
I’ve honored myself and the entire family of man by becoming one.”
Conroy died in 2016 after a prolific
career. I doubt he ever wrote other
words that were better than these. I am
not here to judge, but if Tom’s response does not pull your heart into your
throat, then reading my book is probably not a good use of your time.
Why are you reading this book? What do you hope to gain? When you read the above conversation in Pat
Conroy’s novel, is it more than just mere words to you? Is the message personal? I will provide you with scores of ideas and
suggestions that I believe can lead to improved education. The goal is simple. I want teacher everywhere to get excited
about their careers, about the effect they have on so many college
students. I believe that you can become
a better teacher and with work eventually a great teacher. My advice is simple: Go for it!
The book can also be downloaded from the University of Richmond Scholarship Repository.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/375/
