Book Review
The book Why teach? : In defense of a real education by Mark Edmundson presents a collection of essays that focus on the state of education in the United States. While focusing on the manner in which the education system in America has deteriorated since the 1990s, Edmundson provides insights and advise to the students, parents, and his fellow teachers regarding how to return the American education system to its glory days. While comparing the current education system with the pre-1990s, the changes regarding the role of teachers, and the choices that students make, the author presents his ideas in three parts: the shift, fellow teachers, and fellow students. Throughout the three parts, the major themes that become clear are: changes in the America’s higher education, corporate and consumer cultures in higher education, and the true purpose and importance of real education.
With regard to the changes that have occurred to the higher education in America, Edmundson notes that unlike the old system, the current system of higher education does not lay emphasis on the liberal arts and lite entertainment courses (Edmundson 3). He observes that the current education system does not nurture students in a way that would make them fulfill their potential. He laments that it is impossible for teachers to discover what individual students really love, an aspect that makes it difficult to help students nurture their talents. Here, Edmundson insinuates that students who are receiving their education in the current education systems fail to incorporate what they love in their day to day lives. In this regard, the author implies that many people who have passed through the current education system are ending up securing jobs for the sake of earning but not because the jobs are fulfilling.
The next theme is the corporate and consumer culture in the education system. Edmundson notes that the consumer culture has significantly distorted the purpose of learning and teaching (103). He observes that unlike the past education system where students were encouraged to follow their own paths, the current system encourages advertisements that bombard people constantly thereby influencing parents and family members to tell the students what they should do rather than let them make their own choices. The book suggests that the corporate and consumer culture that is rife in the institutions of higher learning is causing students to pursue courses that are considered more lucrative in the job market instead of taking up courses that complement their talents (Bromley).
While discussing the true purpose of real education, Edmundson observes that while teaching humanities and social sciences, the current system expects professors to use the most popular analyses (143). The author states that such form of teaching is likely to derail the chances of students to have a better understanding of the author being analyzed. As such, the students fail to develop different ways of perceiving the world other than the perspective that students inherit from their family and culture. From the observations that the author makes regarding education, it is clear that he urges students to take up courses that help them discover their own path.
The foregoing themes provide quality insight to ones education in the sense that what the author is taking about is something that one can observe in the institutions of higher learning in America. By reading the essays in the book, one is able to think critically whether they are learning a specific course because it is their choice or a choice of their parents, friends, or family. It is only through such personal reflections that one can discover who they are meant to be, early enough before one reaches a point of no return.
Edmundson’s observations are spot on. The social media, parents, family, teachers, and friends are among the sources of influence to students in the American society today (Sherman 121). This book provides important information regarding how students can prevail over those influences with regard to choosing the courses that would eventually help them secure fulfilling jobs and becoming successful in their careers. The observations that the author makes are believable because Edmundson has been a teacher for many years hence he is writing about things he has personally experienced in the course of his teaching. However, the book fails to look at other aspects that may be the cause of the ‘wrong’ choices that students are making. For instance, students may be making decisions not on the basis of external influences but because there is shortage of role models or lack of opportunities in the job market.
Consequently, students may choose certain courses because they feel that there is increased unemployment rate in a specific market. There is the possibility that students are more prepared to take up courses because they are likely to secure employment more easily than when they take up courses just because they have a personal interest in them. Nevertheless, whether or not a person decides to pursue a course they think they are interested in or one that aligns with one’s talents, it takes the combined effort of parents, teachers, and individual student to excel, first in class and later in the job market.
Accordingly, the implication to the effect that liberal arts courses are the only courses capable of helping students transform themselves may not be entirely true. Edmundson does not present convincing evidence to show that the non-liberal arts courses do not help students to discover and transform themselves. The fact that the author is so focused on influencing students to choose liberal arts courses reveal Edmundson’s bias towards these courses. To that extent, while the book is informative it also lacks objectivity because although the title of the book suggests that the author is defending real education, a thorough reading of the book reveals that Edmundson is actually defending the liberal arts courses.
Work Cited
Bromley, Anne. “In ‘Why Teach?’ U.Va.’s Mark Edmundson Defends Purpose of Higher
Education”. UVAToday. 14 Aug. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. https://news.virginia.edu/content/why-teach-uva-s-mark-edmundson-defends-purpose-higher-education
Edmundson, Mark. Why Teach? : In Defense of a Real Education. New York: Bloomsbury,
2013.
Sherman, Rachel. Book Review: Mark Edmundson, Why Teach? In Defense of a Real
Education. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Theory in Action 7(2), 2014.
