Customer Reviews

I'm the Teacher, You're the Student: A Semester in the University Classroom

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Professor Allitt has written an entertaining book that will delight almost anyone who has had the privilege of a liberal arts education at an American university. The book is organized around a single semester of the professor's class on post-bellum U.S. history. He provides a lecture-by-lecture account of his teaching experience, with enjoyable digressions on the various issues that are the joy and bane of a teacher's life-tardy students, lazy students, students who have yet to master the fundamentals of English grammar, and, every so often, that diamond in the rough who writes cogently and provides a fresh perspective on a complex issue.

There are three things, however, that set Mr. Allitt apart from so many of his colleagues. First, while chastising his students for their mistakes-one of my favorites is the student who wrote about Teddy Roosevelt who, after charging up San Juan Hill, went on to lead the United States through the Depression and the Second World War-he is quite empathetic, patient and forgiving. He is quick to praise them when they do well. And instead of simply railing against the inadequacies of today's college students, he is quick to note the many demands on their time and the pressures they are under.

Second, he is not above second guessing his own judgments and wondering if there isn't a better approach to solving a problem than the one he has chosen.

And third, he employs a somewhat unorthodox teaching style. He employs certain techniques- such as requiring students to draw on a blackboard some of the objects that are part of the day's history lesson (e.g., a locomotive)-that are at once quaint but also quite effective. In addition, instead of relying on the safe, but boring, standardized history texts, he includes on his reading lists historical novels that convey the mood and articulate the issues of a particular era.

Alas, I must report that Professor Allitt is not infallible. At one point in the book (I think around p. 125) while discussing the period music he has chosen to share with the class at the commencement of a lecture about the 1920s and 1930s, he eschews Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue because of its excessive utilization by Delta Airlines in its TV advertisements. If the good professor spent more time watching television instead of reading books, he would know that it is United, not Delta, that is exploiting the Gershwin melody. I suspect, however, that he will wear this criticism as a badge of honor.

I had the honor of taking two of Dr. Allitt's classes during my undergraduate time at Emory University--and I can tell you firsthand that "I'm the Teacher, You're the Student" is just as amazing, inspiring and absorbing as his classroom lectures. I am so touched that Dr. Allitt, who has authored many wonderful books that teach history, took the time to write a book *about* teaching history. Prior to this, I never thought the day-to-day minutia of class discussions, slide-show presentations and grading papers was important enough to warrant academic discourse; indeed, Dr. Allitt chronicles these and many other aspects of the teaching process with the same fascinating and illuminating attention to detail he uses when expounding upon the Spanish-American War and the history of train travel. I read the whole work in one euphoric sitting, and the entire time I felt both cradled by Dr. Allitt's deep care for students and challenged to read and question and understand as much as I can about the world. The book's writing style matches his teaching style--entertaining, thorough, witty, and satisfying. "I'm the Teacher, You're the Student" is a MUST-read for any kind of teacher, no matter what the grade level, no matter what the subject or setting. It is also a MUST-read for any kind of student, especially those who are in college or contemplating it. And if you love history, make sure this book is in your immediate future.

Professor Allitt offers an edifying and entertaining look into what actually transpires within the classroom of one of America's leading universities. He exposes, in painful detail, students' lack of geographical knowledge (being unable to fill in all fifty states on a map of the U.S.), their confusion over historical figures (conflating Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt), and, most painfully, their inability to express themselves in clear writing. And yet the reader can feel how much Professor Allitt loves these pupils...and revels in teaching them. He enthusiastically exposes them to the history of our country, tries (in vain, it would seem) to teach them to express themselves, and forces on them an accountability for their assignments that is sorely lacking in many American academic environments. In addition to all this, he has written a book that is impossible to put down. When I finished it, I ordered 5 more copies to give to friends.

From the pen of a senior professor of history at Emory University comes this entertaining and readable chronicle of a semester in a college classroom. Patrick Allitt's students in his introductory American history course are bright, well-to-do and in the upper echelon of college students today, which makes their frequent foibles all the more distressing. To anyone who teaches or who has taught at the university level, Allitt's descriptions of their frequently terrifying ignorance of basic American culture, let alone English grammar, will raise rueful and knowing smiles. To his credit, Allitt is willing to put himself in their shoes, describing his struggles with an introductory Spanish course which he took in Spain in painfully vivid detail. From this experience he professes to have gained some sympathy for the difficulties many of his students must encounter as first-time learners. Still, that doesn't prevent him from liberally quoting howlers from his weaker students' papers and exams, and describing incidents that do not put them in a particularly flattering light. Occasionally his unsparing depictions made this reader uncomfortable--how much prior consent did he obtain from his subjects, who frequently are made to look foolish, to say the least? The book also reflects the structure of the typical semester, in that as it approaches its end the writing is marred by seeming haste and skimped detail. Overall, though, this is a well-written and engrossing popular chronicle, though I doubt it will add anything to Allitt's scholarly reputation.

I liked the accounts of what Allitt admits is a topic rarely covered by academics: the day-to-day progression of one course taught over a semester. I envy his position at prestigious Emory; if he had taught, as I have and still alas do, at far less distinguished institutions, I reckon his report would have been far more discouraging about the lack of preparation and the dismal study habits of his students. Compared to the majority of American students and instructors, those at Emory enjoy a charmed life. He does acknowledge the limits of previous preparation among his students, of course, but he seems to forget that many students and faculty, not enjoying the privileges of being supported at an expensive and well-endowed private university, labor under far more cumbersome and challenging circumstances than he describes.

There was a disconnect throughout this book, as a result. Atlanta's ivory tower seemed to have cocooned him and his charges too snugly. I wanted to know about his research, his other courses, the load of work (he did have an FA) that he had to balance against his own family and personal committments, and how much of his day was spent on this one history course vs. his other duties. I had no real idea of his own specialty in history beyond a few passing remarks; while this was an introductory class in which generalities predominate, I still wished to find out about the more specific encounters he had, by contrast, with history in his other courses and research.

By concentrating on the microcosmic world of the one course, he does explore well the dynamics that ebb and flow over the weeks among students and between them and himself; his preparation of visuals and supplemental material speaks well to his diligence. His frank explanation of grading and evaluation also shows the pressures that any faculty member--even more for those of us untenured--must face when balancing a stated determination to enforce rigor against the end-of-term tendency to play mercy against justice! Not forgetting that the students expect, as "customers," a good grade as return for their hefty investment, of money if not necessarily effort and achievement.

All in all, this is an honest and entertaining study. I'm sure that he is a respected and popular teacher, not condescending to trying to be trendy or hip or snobbish. He knows his abilities, uses his talents, yet remains a bit distant from his students--which is as it should be, in his explanation. I would have wished for a wider look at where this one course fits into the larger career that Prof. Allitt has pursued within a very contentious job market and gained despite a brutal pecking order. This shortcoming aside, it would be a well-chosen book for college students to-be, faculty members, and those who pay for both: parents of the students, unprepared or otherwise, who enable and demand, if grudgingly for such unremunerative majors, such courses to continue.

After spending 20+ years in a classroom, I always wondered if other professors felt the same way I did. Allitt's book confirms that they do.

Allitt's book describes the progression of one class through a semester, session by session. We watch him prepare for class, lecture and answer questions. We learn how he writes exams and handles office hours, including some humorous encounters with "weepy" students. I love his "excuse file," which resembles my own, right up to the student's injunction to "reply as soon as possible." At times students unwittingly sound more like bosses!

I'm the Teacher should be read in the context of the author's specific circumstances. He's a male in a liberal arts faculty. I doubt that a female professor could get away with some elements of Allitt's style. He wears the same old jacket, year after year. He's demanding. At one point he "towers over" a student who dares to open a fashion magazine: "Put that away at once!" And he refuses to get involved with students' personal lives.

Female professors are expected to be nurturing and empathetic. For a contrast, read Gail Griffin's book, Seasons of a Witch, a vastly underrated book based on the author's experience as a professor of English and women's studies.

And in the business schools where I taught, students often scoffed at learning ("It's who you know that counts"), but we were much better paid.

To anyone seeking to understand academic life, Allitt's book offers a glimpse of reality on one dimension: teaching and dealing with students. But a professor in a university also faces endless committee meetings and political interactions. Allitt's life seems peaceful, almost idyllic. We don't see the challenge of finding time for research along with teaching and the ever-increasing service.

Still I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Allitt has a gift for storytelling and his enthusiasm for his subject is contagious. Readers not only get a taste of academic life. We gain a fascinating taste of Allitt's perspective on some much-discussed events of American history.

Prof. Allitt's book recalling a semester of teaching a survey level US History course is the most entertaining and enjoyable thing I've read this year. I had some previous familiarity with his thoughts on academic subjects from several Teaching Company courses which he presented or in which he participated. All were quite good, but I found them generally orthodox, if accurate, approaches to the subject matter. In "I'm the Teacher" he shows a sharper critical edge, not to mention an abundance of dry British wit, each of which makes for entertaining reading while not descending to the "all my students are incomprehensible dullards" level. Nonetheless, Allitt implicitly delivers a powerful critique of American secondary education.

Although I've spent 7 years in undergraduate and post-graduate education, I must admit that I've had no idea of the professor's viewpoint, apart from that of a friend or two in law schools, given long after I graduated. In fact, as I read Allitt's book, I experienced a fair amount of guilt over my undergraduate attitudes, work habits and efforts, all of which were largely of the mediocre level of which he complains. Something, however, probably the efforts of the 4 or 5 excellent professors I had, motivated me to attempt continued learning and that pursuit is exceptionally rewarding in middle age. And that heightens the sense of what I missed by not being a better student years ago.

More significantly, "I'm the Teacher" led me to realize facts about the educational process nearly 35 years after I ended my undergraduate career. In particular, I feel embarassed about my lousy attitude and the frustration which that may have caused my most able professors and I can understand how a journeyman level of writing skills can compensate for all but the most deficient motivation. If Allitt's concerns were reduced to a single level of complaint, student writing would take the cake distantly followed perhaps by geographical ignorance. All in all, I wish that I either knew then what I now know (much better so, in fact, after reading this text) or at least had the maturity to intuit it. I'm not certain that this would be extremely helpful for a late adolescent about to enter college, but if I had a mature close relative in that position I would give it a try. As a matter of thoughtful reading for pleasure for adults though, I have no question about giving the highest recommendation.

Patrick Allitt is a British-born, Oxford/Berkeley-educated professor of American history at Emory. In this book he details the occurrences in a semester-long course covering U.S. history from 1877-2000 (though he doesn't quite make it to the year 2000). The material is very detailed; he tells us what he has done, class by class, book by book, test by test and he records the students' responses, their strengths, weaknesses, exam howlers, ignorance of geography, and so on. I have tried to think of the book's audience. It will of course be amusing for colleagues, those who share his line of work, his frustrations and his joys. It would also be very interesting to high school students, contemplating college, as well as to their parents who are contemplating paying for it.

I have seen citations to the book in which it has been used to demonstrate the lack of preparation and indolence of American students (even at Emory). While he raises problems of contemporary higher education (grade inflation, for example), this is not a theoretical or historical book on higher ed; it is much more of a journal, detailing one professor's experience in one semester of work.

How representative is the experience related in the book? I would say that his expectations as a teacher are higher than most, much higher than many. His dedication to the task is also far higher than average. Even though he enjoys the help of a teaching assistant in a relatively small class (40 or so students) he goes out of his way to bring the material to life, with various media presentations and a series of labor-intensive activities. He volunteers to read first drafts of papers, which is something that most would not do. First, you cannot do it for some without doing it for all (and announcing that you are willing to do it for all, which he does). Once you announce that you will read first drafts you are setting yourself up to be the editor/proofreader for your students, an extremely important role which they will have to learn to do for themselves; teachers do not follow them around through life, reading first drafts.

His exams and paper requirements strike me as demanding, but then he curves the grades at the end of the process and his allocation of points for various activities within the course is applied in what appears to be a loosey-goosey fashion, something that would set him up for endless challenges by bunkhouse lawyers with calculators and personal claims.

The students seem to be like most upper-average students. Some readers may be chagrined to learn what they do not know; very few professors will be surprised. To give the Emory students their due, most professors would consider the course expectations to be extremely high. A course such as this would largely be unthinkable at 90% of American institutions.

So read and enjoy, take a few grains of salt, wish that you had teachers as conscientious as Professor Allitt and then read some of the more historical/analytical books on contemporary higher education to discover why we are where we are today.

I first became acquainted with Patrick Allitt when I listened to his lectures for The Teaching Company on Victorian Britain. He made that subject extremely interesting and memorable, and now he's done the same for the art of teaching. I especially enjoyed the anecdotal nature of the book, tracing the experiences he had teaching one particular history course at Emory University. Practical tips that would be of use to any teacher are interspersed with historical narrative and humorous moments drawn from class sessions. I teach 5th grade music, a far cry from college history, but still I saw many parallels between his students and mine. I highly recommend this book!

I'm the Teacher--the story of one semester's U.S. History survey course at Emory--is worth reading by any college teacher, rookie or veteran. Rookies may here find classroom techniques worth implementing, and veterans will enjoy making comparisons with their own classrooms.

Allitt is a lively writer, and his unwillingness to embrace easy, politically correct interpretations of American history increases the reader's confidence in his classroom judgment. (But what does it say about the current state of the historical profession when a first-rate teacher refuses to assign a textbook even though many of his students are so obviously ignorant of basics?)

Clearly Professor Allitt is a good teacher, one who does much more than "turn the crank" on the survey course. Nevertheless, he also makes plain the wearying aspects of his position, especially what he perceives to be necessary accommodation to the rudeness and irresponsibility of his overprivileged undergraduates. For despite the truculent-sounding title, this book exudes a genial acquiescence to the trimming of academic sails.