All things considered, “burnout” isn’t a terribly old term. One doesn’t read of “burnout” in the works of Plato or Dante—or even Steinbeck, for that matter, though it’s amusing to think of Jim Casey complaining to Ma Joad, “You don’ know how lousy with burnout I am.” The fact that burnout is sort of a …
Not every woman is a lady. Not every man is a gentleman. I don’t mean to be insulting. These are just the facts. In America, we simply don’t have any ladies or any gentlemen, and that’s by design. The fellows who framed our constitution forbade us from creating inherited titles of power—and that’s what a …
What’s the surest sign of a great teacher? If I were a principal interviewing prospective high school teachers, the question I’d ask older applicants is, “How many of your former students do you keep in touch with? How many graduates want to talk to you after they no longer have to talk to you?” If …
Don’t have a faculty meeting. But if you must, allow me to offer a few suggestions. Classical education is growing rapidly, which means the average school has teachers who have been around for ten years, five years, and five months. They’re not all on the same page—there’s no way around this, but it needs to …
Paradise Lost isn’t the same book on a second read. You remember the plot, you remember the characters, but on a first read, you struggle to see the arc of the book. A good teacher can help you see the most obvious themes and significant images, but Paradise Lost on a first read is like …
The Glory Of A Second Read: What If We Taught Some Books Twice? Read More »
When parents and teachers disagree on a matter which pertains to the education of a child, teachers sometimes say, “We both want what is best for your son.” When teachers are frustrated by disagreements with parents, administrators sometimes remind them, “You both want what is best for the student.” And what do teachers, parents, and …
I would like to offer a playful but not entirely unserious challenge to the people who organize the big classical education conferences every summer: let a K-12 teacher from some small school give a plenary talk. Perhaps an eighth grade Latin teacher from Kentucky. Or a senior rhetoric teacher from Wyoming. I know you’ve got …
There are many ways a teacher can make his students’ lives difficult. An incompetent teacher can make their lives difficult by failing to teach his subject properly or failing to assess students in a lively, humane manner. A truly great teacher can also make students’ lives difficult, though. Fully formed students become like their teachers, …
Don’t show a video in class. Far too many videos are shown in modern classrooms, even classical classrooms, and if a school banned every teacher from ever showing a video of any kind in the classroom, students would miss out on a few neat things, but they would also be saved from a colossal waste …
In case you haven’t heard, ChatGPT is about to “end” high school English. This, at least, is what Daniel Herman breathlessly argued last month in The Atlantic. Perhaps it’s not entirely fair to use the word “breathlessly,” though, as it makes Herman sound a little pathetic and I’ve had several conversations with respectable colleagues who …
