Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference

I really didn't have time to pick this book up, but I did anyway. It was such a page-turner, though, I finished it in only two days (partly at work!). Coming into it, I was prepared for yet another well-trodden tale of how some dedicated teacher awakened some recalcitrant pupil or other to the delights of the written word, but this book turned out to be much more profound, moving, and well-written than I was expecting. Unquestionably the best book of its kind I know of. Touching, humorous . . . the final chapter achieves greatness. And I thought I had outstanding teachers! Complaints? I thought Edmundson could have done a better job of describing Lears physically: till the end of the book I really couldn't picture him, and I think this would have helped in some parts. Also, what ever happened to Lears? This coda was conspicuously missing from the book. Sure, there was a quick little note at the end, but what, really, became of him? Obviously Edmundson forwent a more satisfying account of the fate of his great galvanizer for a reason, I felt he should have at least laid out what it was. Or why he apparently never tried to contact him in later years. I can't believe I'm complaining about this book, though. Something's gotta be wrong with me.

"Student" is a more apt title for this book, and that is not meant to be a criticism. The teacher, Franklin Lears (probably not his real name), is in the background, and the student, Edmundson, is in the foreground. Thus, the book mirrors what Lears did some 30 odd years ago: Lears is the catalyst, the cajoler (a reticient one), the 'teacher' who holds up a mirror and asks you to critically examine yourself and your beliefs. Edmundson submitted (and submits) himself to this examination; and, without explicitly saying so, Edmundson invites the reader to do the same (he does this, I think, by writing as sincerely, honestly, and frankly as he possibly can about his own self-examination). This book is about a lot of things, including Edmundson and Lears. It is biography/memoir, philosophy, popular culture(Edmundson beautifully interprets Johnny Carson, the Beatles, Elvis, and others), history, pedagogy. It's also filled with great writing; Edmundson is an elegant prose stylist.Unfortunately, book stores don't know what to do with this book (at least not yet). At my local "Bricks & Mortar" their only copy was tucked away in the education section. That's a pity because the book deserves a wider audience. Maybe word of mouth will spread the message. (Perhaps Edmundson has an academic's disdain for self-promotion; to my knowledge, he hasn't popped up in the usual places for authors with new books.) I would especially recommend this book to teenagers. I would do so, however, in the Lears' "You might like this" manner. There's no faster way to make a teenager hate a book than require them to read it. (Are you listening, Teacher?)

If you are lucky, you had a teacher back in high school you can remember, one who demonstrated that learning could be more than memorization and scoring high on tests, one whose lessons you remembered long after your education was officially over because the lessons were about learning itself. Mark Edmundson is a professor of English at the University of Virginia, a contributing editor to _Harper's_, and has a bunch of other intellectual chops. It might have turned out differently for him if it weren't for one teacher; he had all the makings of a punk, a television addict, and a sports fan who longed for his days of high school football glory. That he turned out differently he credits to one teacher, and in _Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference_ (Random House), he introduces us to him. He also introduces us to a bunch of minor teachers and role models (not necessarily good ones), many goofy classmates, and, in a book full of openness and acceptance, his own unattractive adolescent self.For Edmundson says, "When I encountered Franklin Lears, I was a high school thug. I was a football player, a brawler, who detested all things intellectual." Lears looked peculiar and he was. Unlike the other teachers, he did not have a set lesson plan full of facts that were to be installed into the heads of his students. He had a capacity to listen and to accept the students' ideas as interesting and worth considering, without imposing his own. He couldn't make immediate changes in their attitudes, and he couldn't change everyone, but some of them eventually got to accept that thinking was useful, was within the capacities of even football jocks, and above all, was fun. Lears abandoned the planned textbook, and settled on books that people were talking about at the time, _The Autobiography of Malcolm X_, _Siddhartha_, and _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_. Besides the booklist, Lears brought the influence of Socrates, and Edmundson makes plain that the analogy of Lears to Socrates and of Medford High students to listeners in the Athenian agora is not forced and not ridiculous. Socrates (ostensibly, at least), took nothing on faith, questioned everything including what everyone else accepted either unthinkingly or with solemn thought, accepted the thoughts of others as good points of departure for reasoning, and he knew how to laugh. Lears, too.The book has memorable portraits of fellow students, and especially Edmundson's father. It is best at demonstrating that the old Socratic method still works, and can still inspire ambition. Simple questioning, and insistence on introspection and putting answers into words, created something Medford High had not seen before. "This was a class that people looked forward to going to, that we talked about all the time, nights and weekends." There is much about good teaching in this wise book, and much about living well. Lears only taught a year before going off to law school, and Edmundson has not attempted

Mark Edmundson's chronicle of a year in the life of Medford High is, first and foremost, a compulsively good read, by turns moving and hilarious, unsentimental yet ultimately uplifting. Teacher is bracing from first page to last. Yet Edmundson manages not only to delight but also--deftly, brilliantly--to instruct. Teacher taught me more about education--its purposes, its practices, its rewards--that anything I've ever read on the subject. What makes a great teacher? What are books for? How can reading change your life? By the end of this wonderful book, you know.

This book is about Mark Edmundson's senior year at Medford High School, and the teacher who broke that year - and that life - apart. The personalities of fellow students, teachers, administrators, coaches - names changed to protect the innocent! - will be recognizeable to anyone who might have passed through senior year, circa 1970, anywhere, though the particular teacher was one we weren't all as fortunate to have had. This book chronicles that slow realizing when a student begins to understand that you can become your own teacher and you can reach beyond the expectations others may have determined for you. 'Teacher' would make an excellent all-school read, a even better all-faculty read. I loved it, and have passed it along to many friends.