The Art of Teaching

I fear that the one-star reviews for this book show a lot about what is wrong with modern public education. True, Highet's book is out of date in some respects. It does not adhere to current PC standards, and a cursory reading would make it seem to have little relevance for "21st-Century" schools. However, a careful, considered study of this book will show that a little mental editing and interpretation on the part of the reader will show that it is as true as it ever was.I first read this book in the summer of 1965 as part of the requirements for one of those dreadful, mind-destroying "professional education" courses which are the root of almost all our current problems with schools. It was like finding a diamond in a dunghill! in the succeeding 38 years which I have spent as a classroom teacher, I have found all of Highet's material to be true: the need for careful preparation, the need to LIKE young people, how to lecture, how to involve the entire class, etc.EVERY prospective teacher should read and study this book. If he or she is put off by a normal literate English vocabulary, then teaching is the wrong profession to go into!

Gilbert Highett was a brilliant scholar, a brilliant teacher, and, if the hints from this book give any indication, a humane and caring person. The Art of Teaching is everything you would therefore expect, filled with thoughtful and practical hints, as well as more global meditations on teaching. Keep in mind that it was written by a university teacher, educated in the Oxbridge (i.e. Oxford-Cambridge) tradition of tutorials (i.e., class meetings of 2 to 6 students), and he was not writing a formulaic manual, nor did he write specifically for American secondary teachers. (If the gross application of formulae and prescriptions is your idea of teaching, then you have already decided that teaching is not an _art_, and it's surprising you would be considering a book with this title.) People who approach the book expecting such a manual are likely to be dissatisfied, to advertise their own ignorance, and to suffer through it in frustration. If you are, like Highett, an educated and humane individual, this book will repay your time, and you will appreciate its nuance, its wisdom, and its timelessness.

I feel a little embarrassed for some of the reviewers below who criticize Highet for his vocabulary and intellectualism.Dumbed down teachers must be a real inspiration in their Missouri classrooms!I purchased a copy of Highet's book from a used bookstore in my town and it has inspired me ever since. Much of what he writes may be "common sense", but many teachers would benefit from a healthy dose of it. I promise that any teacher who reads this book with an open mind instead of contempt for any ideas more than ten years old will become a more effective teacher.

The other reviews of this book seem to me to be judging it by an unfair standard. The main criticism is that it fails to be an up-to-date book of the latest classroom techniques. Well, it makes no claim to be any such thing. Gilbert Highet was a master teacher at Columbia University for decades. His teaching career began in the 30's and ended in the 70's. As a beginning college teacher, I can only dream of educating as many young people as Highet did in the course of his career. Those who say that we have nothing to learn from a teacher of his experience and who lack the imagination to read past his dated language and quaint examples to hear the wisdom he has to offer are the very people who are to blame for the sorry state of American education. If we as a culture were more open to hearing the wisdom of our elders and more aware of the great historical tradition in which we stand, maybe we would have something worth teaching to our young people. Highet had an amazing historical sense, and we would do well to learn from him.