The Excitement of Teaching
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About this ebook
The Excitement of Teaching is a revised adaptation of a lecture given by William Lyon Phelps to Yale University, first published in 1931. In this edition, Phelps outlines his passionate views on teaching as an exciting adventure for young minds based on the idea that literature sits at the heart of knowledge.
William Lyon Phelps was an American author, scholar and critic. He was the first scholar to teach a university course on the modern novel at Yale, which became increasingly popular due to his engaging teaching manner. In the book, Phelps uses literature as the background for the argument and illustrates that teaching is essentially an art, expressing many of his observations throughout the chapters.
Chapters in this volume include:- Literature as a Revelation of Life
- Five Pillars of Education
- Teaching Students to Study
- The Exciting Quest for Ideals
- The Most Thrilling of Professions
Republished by Read & Co. Books, The Excitement of Teaching is a timeless and engaging read for any current teachers looking to expand their techniques or those interested in embarking on a career in teaching.
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The Excitement of Teaching - William Lyon Phelps
[ I ]
LITERATURE AS A REVELATION OF LIFE
IN a novel published in 1930, Green Isle, by Alice Duer Miller, I found the story and the characters interesting, but the following paragraph more interesting than either:
Strangely enough there is nowhere the average person can go to learn how to live his daily life. Children are taught Latin and astronomy, but no school or college tells them how to clear their mind for a decision, how to tell certain psychological, or even psychopathic types, and how to deal with them; how, for any individual, to draw the line between idleness and serenity, between overwork and fullness of life, between sweet charity and being every man’s dupe. Everybody needs such instruction, something halfway between religious precepts and practical talks to salesmen. Women need it particularly, for they do not get, as early as men do, the experience of the business world.
It is quite true, that even among the prodigious number of things professionally taught in some universities today, like cream-separating, nursing, scene-painting, advertising, fertilising, short-story writing, and among the increasing number of business colleges,
schools of journalism,
schools of the drama,
there are no graduate schools devoted to the art of living, and no professional teachers employed to specialise in Life. Possibly the nearest approach to it is the professorship of evil
held by a wise woman, Corra Harris, in that interesting academic experiment, Rollins College in Florida.
Yet the paradox is that the less practical, the less efficient
the particular subject and the particular method of teaching may be, the more the average person will learn how to live his daily life. In a course on electrical engineering, taught by a first-class teacher to a picked class of superior pupils, there will probably be little knowledge gleaned on how to prepare one’s mind for a decision, and how to distinguish between sweet charity and being every man’s dupe. But in a course in Greek literature, the students may learn little if their proficiency is determined by the ease with which they can read Greek at sight; but they cannot help learning something—and some of them will learn much—about the art of living.
It is curious that many people believe in the importance of what they call vocational and practical courses, and regard the study of great literature as merely ornamental, a pretty accomplishment all well enough in seminaries for young ladies. As a matter of fact, nothing is more essential in the proper furnishing of a man’s mind than a knowledge of the world’s best literature—poetry, fiction, essays, drama. Literature is the immortal part of history. Literature is the interpretation of human life.
It is unfortunate that the majority of pupils in high schools and colleges do not study literature with the concentrated attention they give later to vocational and professional studies. They do not see the connexion between liberal
studies and success in life, but they ought to.
I asked a successful engineer in Boston, a man who is at the head of enterprises where he has scores of young engineers working under him, this question: What studies in college would you advise for one who intends to become a civil engineer?
He replied without any hesitation, Anything so long as it has no connexion with engineering.
He told me that those who came to him from technical schools with no liberal education began at first to surpass those who had studied literature and other general subjects. But in a few years the truly educated
young men went ahead, because they had imagination, interesting minds, and a knowledge of human nature.
I should not urge boys and girls to read good books because it will make them successful lawyers, physicians, engineers, business men; it is better to be a good father, a good husband, a good son, a good brother, a good friend, than to achieve material success; it is better to be an interesting personality than to be an efficient machine. But just as a physician who has an admirable bedside manner
is more successful than one who carries an atmosphere of chill, so it is certain that a knowledge of human nature, with the sympathy, tolerance, and understanding that should accompany such knowledge, is an asset for success in any calling where one comes into contact with people.
One reason why Greek and Roman literature makes an unexcelled foundation for modern problems is, that it forms a closed subject. Nothing can be taken away from it, nothing can be added to it. Modern science is shifting its ground every day; an astronomer will tell you that if you want to keep