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49th out of 222 books
—
78 voters
A Life In School: What The Teacher Learned
Here one of our leading literary scholars looks back on her own life in the classroom, and discovers how much of what she learned there needs to be unlearned. Jane Tompkins’ memoir shows how her education shaped her in the mold of a high achiever who could read five languages but had little knowledge of herself. As she slowly awakens to the needs of her body, heart, and sp...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
August 20th 1997
by Basic Books
(first published September 1996)
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Jane Tompkins, a high-profile English professor at Duke with a reputation for pushing the envelope in teaching methods, bares her soul and reveals the scars--many self-inflicted--incurred during her academic career (as student and professor). Hers is basically the story of a success/performance-driven student who achieves at each step of the academic process only to realize, 10 years into tenure, that in her striving in a realm where proving one's
authority is part of almost every exercise, she'd...more
authority is part of almost every exercise, she'd...more
It was nice to come to a teaching book that is also a well written book. I like finding books that are about subjects I want to tackle/need to write about and are also valuable works of literature. And as with much of the literature that Susan talked about last semester this book is excellent because it tells me what I already knew but didn’t know I knew: being in the classroom is an act of performance, whether student or teacher. Performance and classroom actions that are performance are often...more
The author talks about growing up as a teacher-pleaser and the anxiety surrounding her school experience. She excels through school, goes to graduate school (why not?), goes through a couple of difficult marriages with other brilliant people, and eventually runs away with (no lie) STANLEY FISH. As a professor, she starts to realize that her job is not to impress her students with her massive smarts but to put the task of learning into their hands. It's a pretty cool book once you get past some o...more
Delightfully crafted with thoughtful allusions and a clear sene of story-telling. Written by an English professor from Duke, this book asks important bigger questions about how we structure education and what messages that sends. I appreciated the questions and the earnestness with which many were left unresolved.
I loved her reflections on teaching, and very similar to my own thoughts I shared in Getting Messy. p. 121: "I wanted to let go of everything that separated me from the other people in the room. I wanted to know them, I wanted them to know each other, and I wanted them to discover themselves."
I wanted to love this more, but it was less informative than it was self-indulgently aimless. It was missing a thesis-- what I describe to my students as a "spinal cord," the unifying structure which supports all the body's flesh (details, anecdotes, observations).
It's a book to make teachers and teacher trainers reflect. It shows that problems in education are the same here and there giving way to reflection and self-observation.
Some of it was long and drawn-out, as though Tompkins felt as though she had to justify certain things she did in the classroom. Overall, though, it was pretty good.
Aug 05, 2010
Abbi Dion
added it
read this per the suggestion of one of her former students. thoroughly engaging, interesting, thought-provoking. highly recommend for people interested in education.
I have read this twice. Explores inner life of a teacher so well. Tompkins is brave and honest. A bit kooky. But it really is her story out of the cave.
This was ok. She is an interesting person and professor. Her discussions about her experimental teaching were interesting to read.
I honestly couldn't make it too far in this book because Tompkins seems to beat to death her somehow scarringly terrible middle-class, trauma-free childhood in which teachers were generally not the nicest but not the worst. She really belabors her points to a frustrating point.
super insightful book on the struggles of pursuing a profession in academia
Jun 15, 2013
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