TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION by Professor Joe Hoyle (a free gift from me to you)

 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.   

I give this book to you for free.  I made no attempt to have it formally published.  I strongly believe that colleges and universities should freely share as much educational material as possible.  The world desperately needs substantially more high-quality education.  Our planet’s problems are never going to be resolved unless we double or triple the number of well-educated people.  Educators should avoid hoarding our ideas.  I wanted to do my part.   

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 1:      This work is not a novel.  Read it slowly.  Read a couple of pages each day and think about those ideas and suggestions.  You might not agree with every idea.  Hopefully, you will find some that can be helpful and have a significant, positive effect on your teaching.  Take your time.  Read three pages each day and you will finish the entire book in less than two months.  Speed is not the goal here.  Thinking and improving are the goals.  Take your time and shoot to be a better teacher by the time you finish.

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.

Assuaging Reader Worries:      This book has absolutely nothing to do with teaching accounting.  This book is about becoming a better college teacher no matter what subject you teach. 

--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 quotes here from any accountants, but I do have quotes from Ricky Nelson, Miss Piggy, Lao Tzu, and Scarlett O’Hara.   

--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/