Customer Reviews

Teacher in America

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Jacques Barzun is in his nineties today and still one of the best thinkers of our time. Forty years ago both my wife and I ran across this book as we were taking wearisome ed courses in teachers college to acquire certification to teach in New York public schools. Our professors did not like Barzun then, and I am sure they don't like him today. He is down-to-earth, full of common sense, and brilliantly lucid. This was our handbook, along with Gilbert Highet's The Art of Teaching, which they didn't like either. Everything we heard in those classes was shown to be false after we began teaching, but Barzun's observations were unfailingly accurate. Any teacher who goes by this book cannot utterly fail, even in this ridiculous system which has persecuted American children for a half century.

The hardest yet most refreshing part about reading this book is that I am 25. One can easily pick up the urgency in Barzun's words and doubtless he was critiquing the educational modifications of the time- originally published in the 40's. Since that time, every school has become the 'progressive' school that Barzun warns against- A furthering of Deweyan principles of 'It's not learning if it ain't fun' and 'true understanding is in the heart, not the head.' In an effort to make education fun and push students through at all costs, we've lost any sense of the teacher's true goal- to instruct.
I should not give the false impression that Barzun is a hard nosed, humorless curmudgeon who would turn back the clock to monotanous recitation and rote-memorization. The truth is that he is somewhere in the middle. Before the job can be done correctly, the teacher needs to gain the students willful attention and her trust. At that point though, the student NEEDS to be challenged- the student will be pushed to learn (yes, memorization may be involved), grades will be imposed and the student will- it's true-come out the better for it.
The best part is that while Barzun jabs at administrators and theorists (can't we all relate) he writes with obvious love for teachers and students, always keeping their interests in mind. While Barzun can come off as a sourpuss when poking fun at the circular Ph.D system and standardized testing, he is easily forgiven when discoursing on how and how not to teach mathematics, history, arts, literature, the sciences and writing. I only wish he would've been one of my instructors.
The only other thing I can say is that while for teachers, this book is a MUST HAVE, for students (of all ages and abilities) this book is a hidden treasure. Barzun, while giving advice to teachers and administrators, inadvertently (?) gives us tips on how to learn and more saliently, how to think. I'm confident that I will reread this many times throughout my lifetime. Bravo!!!

Barzun's book provides a sounding of education in America. He measures what is right and wrong and he always comes out for the students, making the best of their minds and goals.

Although a few chapters have become either outdated or in applicable, overall, the analysis of America's public education is bull's eye accurate. Further, what is particularly enjoyable about reading this survey is his mellifluous prose style. He is a fine craftsman of the language and it serves to crystalize his thinking and wisdom.

Read this book with a pencil in hand; read it for the many quotable quotes; read it for the perspectives therein; read it for a grounding and a sounding.

This is one of those timless books that remain relevent year after year. Originally written in the 40's it remains one of the best commentairies on the American educational system. Absolutely required reading for anyone interested in how are children are taught, or not. This book along with Leon Bostein's recent book "Jeffersons Children" could serve as guidebooks for improving the quality of instruction in todays schools. Both these authors are quite clear about one thing and that is intstruction and/or teaching are one thing, and that education and "educators" are another. Both of them favor the elimination of the Education Departments from colleges and universities. These are both well written books, from two articulate intellects without an agenda other than the quality of instruction in todays schools.

Mr Barzun has all my admiration. I agree with somebody's words below: "down-to-earth, full of common sense, and brilliantly lucid", and whatever more you want to add he's got it. But, what he talks about is utopia, antient history -the way our educational history develops. It just doesn't apply. One can really enjoy reading Mr. Barzun, no matter what he talks about, but in this case, being the contrast between the former state of education and the current one so hurting, I can't take it. It would have been wonderful if his recommendations (candid recommendations) were applicable today, even slightly. But we've gone (Europe&America) to a point of no return. It would be like taking aspirin against gangrene.

His advice is common-sense, though, as I said. But how do you implement common-sense in a non-common-sense society?

Jacques Barzun's TEACHER IN AMERICA is a classic commentary on actual learning as opposed to "fun and games" in the classroom. He knows what is important in learning and what is cosmetic and false. Barzun not only gives a careful diagnosis of what good teaching and actual learning means, but he is aware that modern "methods" do not work, and he knows why.

Barzun, as other reviewers note, wrote this book in the 1940s when the disasters in public schools were only incubating. He clearly saw what was going to occur as long and teaching and learning are tied to politics. Barzun is clear that the "academic bafflegab" that passes for expertise is pure nonsense even though it sounds good and popular. Jacques Barzun was not trying to be popular with the educational establishemnt. Yet Barzun's writing style is not harsh or too severe. Barzun writes well and engages his readers in a lucid assessment of what authenic teaching and learning are.

One thing that Barzun does is inform the reader that there is a cause-and-effect realtionship between teaching and learning. He does not waste his time nor that of his readers in presenting useless statistics based on phony polls and questionnaires. Rather than relying on useless statistics, Barzun relies on reason and honesty as if truth mattered. This is far removed from the current "experts" who think phony statistical assessments are somehow a substitute for solid learning and difficult but useful solutions.

The chapter titled "Getting the Classics off the Shelf" is probably the best chapter of the book. Barzun knew what some currently know which is the fact that The Classics have much to teach us. The Classics expose students to excellent writing, reading, and serious thinking. If students are well armed with the ability to read well, think critically, and write coherently, they are prepared to learn so much on their own without the babified pablum offered by teachers of useless "education courses."

Barzun's book has much more meaning currently than when he first wrote it. The so-called "experts" think they are going to use childish methods and useless classes to solve problems of mass illiteracy when in fact their programs and babified methods make a bad situation worse. These same "experts" are the same ones who offered the previous canned nonsense that did not work. Barzun hints at the fact that this is a perpetual problem of failures that no one wants to admit.

When current students are told that "wellness" classes and learing to fill some benefit form or other bureaucratic set of paperwork are more important than actually learning to read well and think, the current disaster needs no explanation. When very didicated teachers are told they are responsible for criminal behavior and teenage pregnancy which are well beyond their control, there is no wonder why young, intelligent teachers vacate the teaching profession. Barzun knew that students had to learn to take their place as adults. Yet, currently teachers are told they must conform to students' bad taste and be sensitive to students' needs. The fact is that students must learn to be sensitive and conform to an adult world. Teenage adolecents need to learn that they must adjust to the adult world and not the other way around. Studying The Classics is a good place to start learning this.

While Barzun is in advanced age, his book titled TEACHER IN AMERICA is still useful and relevant. The problems that Barzun alluded to in this book are now complete disasters. Yet, to paraphrase Barzun on page 15, one must not lose faith in the teaching profession.

Jacques Barzun, as other reviewers note knows about teaching. Broadly, and deeply well read (check out his magnum opus 'Dawn to Decadence', a five hundred year sweep of Western cultural history, Barzun has been a teacher and writer nearly all his life. Mostly at Columbia University. He knows the rewards of teaching, and also the frustrations, such as trying to get young people to focus on things that are almost certainly not their first preference. He is rigorously scholarly, concluding with words justifying the life of the mind in the face of the myriad practical concerns of day to day living.

He is an intellectual giant, but a genius teacher too, with the teachers' knack of knowing just how much a learnign mind can bear and how it should be developed.

This book, written in the 1940s, should be written by all teachers, at school or university level. Unfortunately it is unlikely that politicians will read it, given their focus on all that is 'measurable' and 'targets', the idea that the value of a lesson can be measured instantly (as Barzun astutely observes, the fruits of a days teaching may not be realised until twenty or thirty years hence).

I love reading Barzun, since he always writes as if he has nothing to lose. As a teacher, I found this to be a very enjoyable book, and I appreciate that much of the book can be read as independent essays. I will be sharing some of these with my colleagues. Some of the content is a bit dated (understandably), and perhaps the book is a little longer than it needed to be. Overall, however, Barzun ranks up there with Theodore Dalrymple as someone that I read purely for the well-crafted prose... regardless of whether I agree or not (which, most often, I do).

Sure this book is a little out of date. And sure nobody knows what a progressive school is anymore. But this is a fine book. It gives a very insightful view of the problems and strengths of the American education and even though this book is over 50 yrs old, it still makes sense today. The author's style is magnificent, he is truly a craftsman who can interweave wit, humor and seriousness as smoothly as chocolate fudge oozes down a woman's naked body. I like it.