A Life In School: What The Teacher Learned

Jane Tompkins had an epiphany about teaching late in her academic career: teaching involves relationships, and teachers should think about how students are making sense of the material. At elite colleges, this insight is depressingly rare, and when Tompkins first articulated it in an article called "Me and My Shadow," it made significant waves in the academy. "A Life in School" represents Tompkins review of her own schooling and her early teaching in light of this new understanding. Part of this book may surprise people who haven't yet figured out that schools should not be structured primarily by competition and shame; it's unusual to see such a prominent scholar arguing that classrooms should treat students humanely. But what were discoveries for Tompkins in the 90s have been standard practice for many teachers since the 1960s (and for some in the 1930s). I'd recommend Nancie Atwell's "In the Middle" or Vivian Gussey Paley's "The Boy Who Would Be a Helicopter" to those interested in teaching narratives that push beneath the surface. Although "Women's Ways of Knowing" focuses on girls' education, it also articulates in universally helpful ways many of the principles Tompkins is trying to develop. Jane Tompkins' publicity for good teaching has been immensely helpful, but there's a whole library of books published by Heinemann that can teach you more about building effective, caring classrooms.

A Life in School fluidly incorporates autobiographical support for Tompkins' arguments for more humanity in the humanities. Entertaining and illuminating!