Synopses & Reviews
We rarely discuss college anymore without bringing up its exorbitant price tag. Is there an education bubble? Is a bachelor's degree worth the investment? If you didn't know better, you'd think universities were only available to us on the stock market.
What ever happened to the actual human souls who do the teaching and learning these institutions are rumored to promote?
Mark Edmundson, a renowned professor of English at the University of Virginia, has considered the personal meaning of education his whole career. His prose, exacting yet expansive, tough-minded yet optimistic, is that rare breed that reminds us that reading matters after all. He has been writing on this important subject for decades, sometimes in book form and other times in essays that have run in places like Harper's, the New York Times, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Here Edmundson's writings on the subject are collected, including several that are new and unpublished elsewhere. What they show, collectively, is that higher learning is not some staid old notion but necessary medicine for our troubled modern selves. Edmundson enlivens his topic, putting parents back in the classrooms perhaps inhabited by their children. His carefully chosen words are filled with the wisdom and inspiration that make learning possible. This book is a must-read for any teacher, or student, and a refreshing reminder to parents.
Review
“If I meet any students heading to the University of Virginia, I will tell them to seek out Mark Edmundson…Mr. Edmundson reminds us of the power strong teachers have to make students rethink who they are and whom they might become.”
—Michael S. Roth, New York Times “Mark Edmundson's lively account of the way we educate now offers enjoyment and enlightenment.”
—Harold Bloom
"A spirited and cheering read…accurate and insightful, even inspiring." —Chicago Tribune“In prose so fresh and personal that it leaps off the page, Mark Edmundson launches a stinging critique of higher education today. Everywhere he sees teachers flattering students, confirming their prejudices, and training them for the success game rather than opening their minds to new ways of looking at the world. His teaching ideal, developed here in exemplary detail, is at once utopian and absolutely essential. This book deserves to be widely read.”
—Morris Dickstein, author of Gates of Eden and Dancing in the Dark “Edmundson may have strong words about culture, education and the common readers quest to be entertained above all else, but he provides a bracing tonic against the decline of higher education.” —Kirkus Reviews “Edmundsons accessible prose will motivate both students and teachers. Highly recommended for all involved in higher education; an enjoyable and inspiring read.” —Library Journal “A meditation, a jeremiad, some musings, and some possible solutions. The questions (what to teach? what to study?) find answers in the values Edmundson discovers in becoming an English major: ‘Love for language, hunger for life, openness and a quest for truth or truths. Addressing teachers, students, and parents, Edmundson defends the intellectual and spiritual value, even the usefulness, of the ‘scholarly enclave and ‘seeking knowledge so as to make the lives of other human beings better.”—Publishers Weekly “Some of the best essays around about the meaning of a college education. Wise, passionate, frank, funny, and always intimately in touch with the texture of the classroom experience, this is a gift to all of us who care about the future of higher education.”
—William Deresiewicz, author of A Jane Austen Education "Why Teach? is a heartfelt and provocative book that will interest anyone who wonders what happened to the idea that college should be a life-altering, mind-expanding experience. With wry humor and hard-won wisdom, Mark Edmundson offers an inspiring vision of the liberal arts as a vehicle for personal transformation."
—Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Leftovers “You may not like everything Mark Edmundson has to say in this shimmering series of essays, but you will never again need to ask his question, ‘Why Teach? Read his answers and make your own revolution.”
—Megan Marshall, author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life “A wonderful book. Indispensable reading for all those concerned with what higher education in America and in the world should be.”
—J. Hillis Miller, Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Irvine “Mark Edmundson manages to be old-fashioned and radical at the same time, skeptical of every latest thing and yet deeply comprehending of students hyperlinked and hyperactive lives. Edmundson is a school of one, a voice of calm and refection with lessons worth teaching.”
—Edward Ayers, president, University of Richmond “Mark Edmundson obviously missed the intellectual timidity gene that's so helpful for an academic career. He has the audacity to argue in this book that universities should not be business and consumer training facilities, internet hookup spots, and workout centers, but places where students grapple with ‘perspective-altering intellectual challenges.”
—Gerald Graff, Professor of English and Education, University of Illinois at Chicago, former President, Modern Language Association “To read this book is to experience just the kind of course Edmundson admires, one that provokes thought and self-examination. A heartfelt, beautifully written, profound, and often hilarious appeal to rage against the machinery of modern education.” —Booklist, starred review \
Review
“Mark Edmundsons lively account of the way we educate now offers enjoyment and enlightenment.” —Harold Bloom
“A heartfelt, beautifully written, profound, and often hilarious appeal to rage against the machinery of modern education.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Edmundsons accessible prose will motivate both students and teachers. Highly recommended for all involved in higher education; an enjoyable and inspiring read.” —Library Journal
“[A] deeply felt collection of explorations and reflections on an education in the liberal arts.” —Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
From one of the countrys great professors, a fresh, modern take on what higher education is for.
Synopsis
We rarely discuss college anymore without bringing up its exorbitant price tag. Is there an education bubble? Is a bachelor's degree worth the investment? If you didn't know better, you'd think universities were only available to us on the stock market.What ever happened to the actual human souls who do the teaching and learning these institutions are rumored to promote?Mark Edmundson, a beloved professor of English at the University of Virginia, has considered the personal meaning of education his whole career. His prose, exacting yet expansive, tough-minded yet optimistic, is that rare breed that reminds us that reading matters after all. He has been writing on this important subject for decades, sometimes in book form and other times in essays that have run in places like Harper's, the New York Times, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.Here Edmundson's writings on the subject are collected, including several that are new and unpublished elsewhere. What they show, collectively, is that higher learning is not some staid old notion but necessary medicine for our troubled modern selves. Edmundson enlivens his topic, putting parents back in the classrooms perhaps inhabited by their children. His carefully chosen words are filled with the wisdom and inspiration that make learning possible. This book is a must-read for any teacher, or student, and a refreshing reminder to parents.
Synopsis
From one of the country's great professors, a fresh, modern take on what higher education is for.
Synopsis
We rarely discuss college anymore without bringing up its exorbitant price tag. Is there an education bubble? Is a bachelor's degree worth the investment? If you didn't know better, you'd think universities were only available to us on the stock market.
What ever happened to the actual human souls who do the teaching and learning these institutions are rumored to promote?
Mark Edmundson, a beloved professor of English at the University of Virginia, has considered the personal meaning of education his whole career. His prose, exacting yet expansive, tough-minded yet optimistic, is that rare breed that reminds us that reading matters after all. He has been writing on this important subject for decades, sometimes in book form and other times in essays that have run in places like Harper's, the New York Times, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Here Edmundson's writings on the subject are collected, including several that are new and unpublished elsewhere. What they show, collectively, is that higher learning is not some staid old notion but necessary medicine for our troubled modern selves. Edmundson enlivens his topic, putting parents back in the classrooms perhaps inhabited by their children. His carefully chosen words are filled with the wisdom and inspiration that make learning possible. This book is a must-read for any teacher, or student, and a refreshing reminder to parents.
Synopsis
Mark Edmundsons essays reclaim college not as the province of high-priced tuition, career training, and interactive online courses, but as the place where serious people go to broaden their minds and learn to live the rest of their lives.
A renowned professor of English at the University of Virginia, Edmundson has felt firsthand the pressure on colleges to churn out a productive, high-caliber workforce for the future. Yet in these essays, many of which have run in places such as Harpers and the New York Times, he reminds us that there is more to education than greater productivity. With prose exacting yet expansive, tough-minded yet optimistic, Edmundson argues forcefully that the liberal arts are more important today than ever, and a necessary remedy for our troubled times. Why Teach? is brimming with the wisdom and inspiration that make learning possible.
About the Author
Mark Edmundson teaches at the University of Virginia, where he is University Professor. A prizewinning scholar, he is also the author of Why Read?, Teacher, The Death of Sigmund Freud, and The Fine Wisdom and Perfect Teachings of the Kings of Rock and Roll. His writing has appeared in such publications as the New Republic, the New York Times Magazine, the Nation, and Harper's. He lives in Batesville, Virginia, with his wife, the writer Elizabeth Denton.