Book Review: Why Teach? In Defense of a Real Education
by Mark Edmundson. Bloomsbury, 2013. Hardcover.
Review by Deborah Straw
In “A Word to the New Humanities Professor,” Mark Edmundson, Professor of English, recommends the way to consider the job and the students. “He [the new professor] must take very seriously… the central lesson that his students have to instill: that he is a service provider, not entirely unlikely the dentist, the stockbroker… and the man who comes to clean the pool… As to grades, he should understand that students care nothing about them…as long as certain protocols are observed.” That means that grades will range from a B- to mostly A’s as long as students do at least some of the work and attend class “periodically.”
Is Edmundson serious in these suggestions? I highly recommend reading Why Teach? and learning what this seasoned teacher, with both irony and drop dead seriousness, has to offer. More experienced teachers will appreciate much of his philosophy and ideas; younger teachers and administrators may be surprised or even skeptical. They would be an ideal audience.
The essays in this volume can be read straight through, or the reader can dip in and out of the content. The author addresses several aspects of college life, including the place of sports. Two of the most enthusiastic, and most stirring, are “Teaching the Truths,” and “Against Readings.” The essays are written in a literary style, not verbose and tedious as is some writing by academics. (Edmundson calls such academic tests “usually unreadable.”)
One thing nags at me: The title of this book seems a bit awkward. Left alone, Why Teach? implies that the text would include reasons to continue teaching in this radically-changed higher education world: love of knowledge; new books; love of students; love of research and writing; camaraderie with one’s peers; love and pride of one’s campus; the opportunity for sabbaticals, etc. However, Edmundson’s essays, some of which were previously published in Harper’s and The New York Times, are formed around his ideas of what a good teacher is, what a worthwhile education is, and how his students — and the administration — might consider returning to a few older values and practices. Of course, the subtitle explains the book’s content more succinctly: “In defense of a real education.”
Mark Edmundson is a professor who believes in the old-fashioned values and purposes of education: to gain knowledge, to expand one’s worldview, to learn about a myriad of ways to live a life. Edmundson believes eduction leads those who get one to think about other people, other countries, as well as about oneself. The author is both somewhat of a reactionary and a revolutionary. The “proper business of teaching is change – for the teacher…and (preeminently) for the student,” he writes.
Edmundson wants all students to at least study literature, if not to become English majors; he suggests a hiatus on academic (critical) readings so students can “befriend” the text – i.e., read Blake as Blake, not as related to a literary theory, for example, a feminist reading of Blake.
Edmundson is not all about preparing students with certain skills and communication practices primarily so they can earn a good income. He does not want to be, nor is he, an entertainer. On the other hand, he does believe that academia has changed radically since the ’60s. A major change is the focus from teachers (“the professors ran the show”) to students as the ones being in charge.
Edmundson does not blame his students for the institutional changes. In fact, he admires many of his students. He finds them to be decent human beings and “potent believers in equality.”
Rather, he finds consumer culture and the universities themselves as being at fault for the way students now act and for what they expect. “Given the way universities are now administered (which is more and more to say, given the way that they are currently marketed), is it a shock that the kids don’t come to school hot to learn, unable to bear their own ignorance? My students, alas, usually lack the confidence to acknowledge what would be their most precious asset for learning: their ignorance.”
Edmundson notes that for students today, the most important parts of life are not in the classroom. They have parties, join clubs, play music, play sports and hang with friends. Classes “are just part of an ever-enlarging web of activities and diversions.”
If he were an adjunct, could he write such truths and retain his classes?
One of the salient characteristics of these essays is Edmundson’s passion – about books, ideas and the value of a traditional education. The professor writes fervently of Emerson, Lord Byron, Freud and Dickinson. When I recently watched a YouTube interview of him, about reading (He also wrote Why Read?), he displayed this passion in his short, profound answers. “Passion is seldom seen in the classroom these days; this professor concurs. On good days they display a light, appealing glow; on bad days, shuffling disgruntlement. But there’s little fire, little passion to be found.” He finds students “self-contained.”
Mark Edmundson is a professor at the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, in Charlottesville. A prolific author, he has written on a variety of topics: two diverse titles are The Fine Wisdom and Perfect Teachings of the Kings of Rock and Roll, 2010 and The Death of Sigmund Freud, 2008. He is married to the fiction writer Elizabeth Denton.
Despite all his strong reservations about the current higher education atmosphere, Edmundson still is dedicated to teaching and to changing lives; he has not given up on his students or his intentions of providing a worthwhile education. He is aware that not all his ideas will adequately convince others. In the conclusion of “Liberal Arts & Lite Entertainment,” he admits, “I’m getting back to a more exuberant style; I’ll be expostulating and arm-waving straight into the millennium, yes I will.” And he is indeed; his latest book, released in February 2018, is The Heart of the Humanities: Reading, Writing, Teaching.
Mark Edmundson’s credo might be this: “ …knowledge is joy. Creativity is ultimate freedom. Real thought is bliss… Dare to Know: Dare to Be Wise!”
