Why Teach? In Defense of a Real Education

WHY TEACH? is a heartfelt and provocative book that will interest anyone who wonders what happened to the idea that college should be a life-altering, mind-expanding experience. With wry humor and hard-won wisdom, Mark Edmundson offers an inspiring vision of the liberal arts as a vehicle for personal transformation. Tom Perotta, author of LITTLE CHILDREN and THE LEFTOVERS In prose so fresh and personal it leaps off the page, Mark Edmundson launches a stinging critique of higher education today. Everywhere he sees teachers flattering students, confirming their prejudices, and training them for the success game rather than opening their minds to new ways of looking at the world. His teaching ideal, developed here in exemplary detail, is at once utopian and absolutely essential. This book deserves to be widely read. Morris Dickstein, author of GATES OF EDEN and DANCING IN THE DARK Mark Edmundson obviously missed the intellectual timidity gene that's so helpful for an academic career. He has the audacity to argue in this book that universities should not be business and consumer training facilities, internet hookup sports, and workout centers, but places where students grapple with 'perspective-altering intellectual challenges." Gerald Graff, Professor of English and Education, University of Illinois at Chicago, former President, Modern Language Association A heartfelt, beautifully written, profound, and often hilarious appeal to rage against the machinery of modern education. Booklist (starred review)