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The Elements of Teaching
“Teaching as an art is given much-needed attention in this guided tour through its intricacies by two experienced and empathetic cicerones.”— Publisher's Weekly
“There are not many books like this around these days.”— Times Educational Supplement
“This valentine to dedicated teachers should be required reading.”—Patricia Kean, Washington Post Education Review
What are the characteristics of a great teacher? What qualities of mind and spirit are necessary to help others acquire the knowledge through which they can understand and live a good life? In this book, James Banner and Harold Cannon draw on many years of experience to set forth the intellectual, moral, and emotional capacities that they believe the best teachers must possess. Their book is an inspiring guide to current and future school teachers and to college and university professors—indeed to everyone who teaches anything to anyone else.
Arguing that teaching is an art, Banner and Cannon help teachers understand its components. They analyze the specific qualities of successful teachers and the ways in which these qualities promote learning and understanding. Throughout, they illustrate their discussion with sharply etched portraits of fictional teachers who exemplify—or fail to exemplify—a particular quality. Neither a how-to book nor a consideration of the philosophy, methods, or activities of teaching, this book, more precisely, assesses what it takes to teach. It encourages teachers to consider how they might strengthen their own level of professional performance.
“There are not many books like this around these days.”— Times Educational Supplement
“This valentine to dedicated teachers should be required reading.”—Patricia Kean, Washington Post Education Review
What are the characteristics of a great teacher? What qualities of mind and spirit are necessary to help others acquire the knowledge through which they can understand and live a good life? In this book, James Banner and Harold Cannon draw on many years of experience to set forth the intellectual, moral, and emotional capacities that they believe the best teachers must possess. Their book is an inspiring guide to current and future school teachers and to college and university professors—indeed to everyone who teaches anything to anyone else.
Arguing that teaching is an art, Banner and Cannon help teachers understand its components. They analyze the specific qualities of successful teachers and the ways in which these qualities promote learning and understanding. Throughout, they illustrate their discussion with sharply etched portraits of fictional teachers who exemplify—or fail to exemplify—a particular quality. Neither a how-to book nor a consideration of the philosophy, methods, or activities of teaching, this book, more precisely, assesses what it takes to teach. It encourages teachers to consider how they might strengthen their own level of professional performance.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
33 people are currently reading
223 people want to read
About the author
James M. Banner Jr.
16 books12 followersA 1957 graduate from Yale University, James M. Banner, Jr. earned his Ph.D. degree in 1968 at Columbia University under Richard Hofstadter and Eric L. McKitrick. Banner taught at Princeton University from 1966 until 1980, when he resigned to found the American Association for the Advancement of the Humanities.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
July 31, 2025
Since reading that the CEO of Duolingo claimed that AI will replace teachers I have had two more people bring up and discuss this idea with me. This book is another fantastic resource to explore just how detrimental that would be to students.
The idea that the character our teachers model to us matters even more than the content they teach us ought to be intuitive. I can remember dates of a few World War II battles or what a mitochondria is, sure, but those are things I could have looked up in the textbook for myself. What I could not do by myself (or even with an AI guide) is learn how to learn from an older, wiser human who demonstrates how to take on the world with curiosity, compassion, imagination, and tenacity. I don’t remember how to do calculus, but I remember the teachers who modeled good learning — and those who didn’t.
“These dimensions of our own selves constitute the core of teaching; when we teach, we animate inert knowledge with qualities of our own personality and spirit that affect, or ought to affect, our students.”
Two and a half weeks until I’m animating inert knowledge!
The idea that the character our teachers model to us matters even more than the content they teach us ought to be intuitive. I can remember dates of a few World War II battles or what a mitochondria is, sure, but those are things I could have looked up in the textbook for myself. What I could not do by myself (or even with an AI guide) is learn how to learn from an older, wiser human who demonstrates how to take on the world with curiosity, compassion, imagination, and tenacity. I don’t remember how to do calculus, but I remember the teachers who modeled good learning — and those who didn’t.
“These dimensions of our own selves constitute the core of teaching; when we teach, we animate inert knowledge with qualities of our own personality and spirit that affect, or ought to affect, our students.”
Two and a half weeks until I’m animating inert knowledge!
February 7, 2010
This is truly an excellent book. It is elegantly and intelligently written, utterly free of the cliches, sentimentality, and claptrap that characterize much that has been written about teachers and what they do for a living. The authors -- one a former member of history dept. at Princeton, the other a retired classics professor and dean at Manhattanville College -- stress that teaching is an art and teachers are artists. The authors' aim is to acquaint readers with an understanding of the many intangible characteristics that make for great teaching.
"Magister nascitur, non fit:" the best teachers in the world are those who draw upon innate qualities of heart, character and personality that enliven their instruction and inspire their students. Teaching, in their view, is a uniquely creative calling, one that requires spontaneity, wisdom, and a host of other important qualities. The qualities that make the best teachers can rarely be taught, but they can be distilled and discussed, as they are here.
This is not a "how to" book or practical guide to instruction. There is nothing here, thankfully, about "curriculum mapping," "gender bias in the classroom" or "differentiated instruction." It consists instead of chapters that explore the essential elements that are a prerequisite to excellence in teaching. These chapters are entitled:
1. Introduction
2. Learning
3. Authority
4. Ethics
5. Order
6. Imagination
7. Compassion
8. Patience
9. Character
10. Pleasure
Afterword
Each chapter discusses the way in which an individual quality necessarily informs the best teaching. At the end of each, the authors create a fictional scenario in which a hypothetical teacher is shown either to possess that quality or not. This epilogue to each chapter offers a concrete illustration of what is discussed in each chapter.
Whether you are considering a teaching career, have been teaching for many years or are a retired teacher, you will enjoy this thoughtful book. It is, in short, a superb analysis of why great teachers are great.
"Magister nascitur, non fit:" the best teachers in the world are those who draw upon innate qualities of heart, character and personality that enliven their instruction and inspire their students. Teaching, in their view, is a uniquely creative calling, one that requires spontaneity, wisdom, and a host of other important qualities. The qualities that make the best teachers can rarely be taught, but they can be distilled and discussed, as they are here.
This is not a "how to" book or practical guide to instruction. There is nothing here, thankfully, about "curriculum mapping," "gender bias in the classroom" or "differentiated instruction." It consists instead of chapters that explore the essential elements that are a prerequisite to excellence in teaching. These chapters are entitled:
1. Introduction
2. Learning
3. Authority
4. Ethics
5. Order
6. Imagination
7. Compassion
8. Patience
9. Character
10. Pleasure
Afterword
Each chapter discusses the way in which an individual quality necessarily informs the best teaching. At the end of each, the authors create a fictional scenario in which a hypothetical teacher is shown either to possess that quality or not. This epilogue to each chapter offers a concrete illustration of what is discussed in each chapter.
Whether you are considering a teaching career, have been teaching for many years or are a retired teacher, you will enjoy this thoughtful book. It is, in short, a superb analysis of why great teachers are great.
December 27, 2020
It has one of the greatest first lines of teaching books: “Most teachers forget that teaching is an art.” Any teacher, new or experienced, young or old, will find words of wisdom peppered throughout this useful and thoughtfully articulated book. The structure is similar to a textbook as each chapter progresses through one of the ten elements of teaching, with a story to cap each chapter in thoughtful reflection. This book could be recommended to all teachers and parents, and I would enjoy reading again every year or two as it is likely to remain a well of support and encouragement for many years to come.
Favourite Quotes:
"[A]s with every other art, mastery of teaching is gained through close attention of methods and materials as well as to refinement of native gifts."
"If the fire of knowledge is extinguished in teachers, even the best students are unlikely to reignite the torch and carry it to its ultimate destination — the achievement of understanding."
"By saying that the true teacher must master a body of knowledge, we distinguish knowledge from information... Information is to knowledge what sound is to music, the unorganized material out of which the structured result is composed."
"What matters is not the means of staying abreast of knowledge but the actual pursuit of that knowledge."
"[Teachers] have to lead their students to set their own high expectations, to imagine what they may achieve, and to aspire to achieve it."
"Without prepared minds, students are not likely to learn."
"Compassionate teachers bring their full personalities to class and do not act as if they have left significant parts of themselves at home."
"Teachers with no obvious signs of human feeling can not establish that sense of comfort and security that is so necessary in creating a teaching environment that invites and encourages participation."
"K Craigs
Dec 24, 2020, 6:53 AM (3 days ago)
to me
eBook: The Elements of Teaching
By: James Banner, Harold Cannon
Started: 04-JUN-2020
Finished: 27-JUN-2020
Learning
Authority
Ethics
Order
Imagination
Compassion
Patience
Tenacity
Character
Pleasure
It has one of the greatest first lines of teaching books: “Most teachers forget that teaching is an art.” Any teacher, new or experienced, young or old, will find words of wisdom peppered throughout this useful and thoughtfully articulated book. The structure is similar to a textbook as each chapter progresses through one of the ten elements of teaching, with a story to cap each chapter in thoughtful reflection. Would recommend to all teachers and parents, and would enjoy reading again every year or two as it is likely to remain a well of support and encouragement for many years to come.
Favourite Quotes:
[A]s with every other art, mastery of teaching is gained through close attention of methods and materials as well as to refinement of native gifts.
If the fire of knowledge is extinguished in teachers, even the best students are unlikely to reignite the torch and carry it to its ultimate destination — the achievement of understanding.
By saying that the true teacher must master a body of knowledge, we distinguish knowledge from information... Information is to knowledge what sound is to music, the unorganized material out of which the structured result is composed.
So teachers are and must be thinkers in their own right, not just doers who happen to teach and possess the skill to do so.
True teachers liberate the thinking of others.
A teacher must possess learning:
1 - Learning means knowing and mastering a subject.
2 - Learning embodies the act of learning.
3 - Learning requires keeping up with one’s subject.
4 - Learning conveys the spirit and love of learning to others.
5 - Learning means being open to the knowledge of others, especially of one’s own students.
6 - Learning provides the basis for independent thought.
7 - Learning justifies learning.
The teacher has joined a discipline, a professional guild of people who consider themselves guardians of, and contributors to, a branch of knowledge.
What matters is not the means of staying abreast of knowledge but the actual pursuit of that knowledge.
What teachers can do to gain, foster, deserve, and sustain authority:
1 - Authority requires a climate for serious learning.
2 - Authority means mastery of a subject.
3 - Authority is a matter of carriage and conduct as well as knowledge.
4 - Authority is acquired and accumulated.
5 - Authority encourages aspiration in students.
6 - Authority requires some formal distance between teachers and students.
7 - Authority emerges from an acknowledged difference in the status of teacher and student.
Great teachers and great schools are distinguished in large part from average teachers and average schools by the strength and longevity of ambition they instill in their students.
Greater knowledge of a subject and greater skill in conveying it are what distinguishes teachers not only from students but from parents and school board members and other professionals.
How to be ethical in teaching:
1 - The first rule of ethical teaching is to do no harm to students.
2 - Ethical teaching requires exclusive attention to students’ welfare.
3 - Ethical teaching means setting high standards and expectations and inspiring students to meet them.
4 - Ethical teaching means embodying the principles of teaching.
5 - Ethical teaching means teaching ethics.
6 - Ethical teaching means acknowledging students’ minds, ways, and beliefs.
7- Ethical teaching requires consideration of students’ differing but tenable viewpoints.
[Teachers] have to lead their students to set their own high expectations, to imagine what they may achieve, and to aspire to achieve it.
Common aspects of order that characterize all good teaching:
1 - Order requires the exertion of authority.
2 - Order arises from a teacher’s leadership.
3 - Order requires teaching to have direction and momentum.
4 - Order implies tranquility in the classroom.
5 - Order involves discipline.
6 - Order should be accepted as good.
7 - Order necessitates that teachers set good examples.
8 - Order requires the maintenance of standards.
Effective teaching requires that, failing their own self-imposed order, students experience the imposition of some outer order so that inner order may develop.
Much classroom discipline has to do with a teacher’s acceptance of the obligation to be disciplined in behaviour — that is, to be orderly, clear, accurate, and authentic in expression and purpose so as to be able to teach well and to serve the students’ good.
A goal achieved is better by far than one abandoned.
Consistency, dependability and fairness equal good discipline.
Students are learning satisfactorily when they are regularly reaching for the almost-attainable.
How imagination can serve teaching:
1 - Imagination in teaching begins with confidence that knowledge is transferable.
2 - Imaginative teachers find their own ways to enhance learning.
3 - Imagination means visualizing students’ futures.
4 - Imagination anticipates the needs and reactions of students.
5 - Imagination enhances and facilitated the presentation of subject matter.
6 - Imagination in teaching means being successfully creative.
7 - Imagination introduces surprise and excitement into teaching.
Without prepared minds, students are not likely to learn.
Teachers must venture into the expansive realm of possibilities; they must continually suspend any fear that something may not be within reach of their students. It is this quality of suspending fear that makes great teaching evangelical and sometimes irresistible. Its power arises from a teacher sustaining faith in the capacity of knowledge and understanding to enrich life, even when faced with the customary intractability of the human mind to enlarge itself.
How compassion manifests itself in the classroom:
1 - Compassion requires first that teachers know who their students are.
2 - Compassion demands an adherence to high standards.
3 - Compassion requires that teachers put themselves in their students’ places.
4 - Compassion makes approval enjoyable and correction palatable.
5 - Compassion requires avoiding favouritism.
6 - Compassion moves teachers to acknowledge their students’ struggles.
7 - Compassion means acting as a whole person.
8 - Compassion is evident in a steady devotion to each student’s future.
[C]ompassion is the basis for the necessary patience of teachers; no matter how inept or clumsy students’ attempts at grasping the material may be, compassion ensures that teachers, rather than being scornful or condescending, will be tolerant and understanding.
Compassionate teachers bring their full personalities to class and do not act as if they have left significant parts of themselves at home.
Teachers with no obvious signs of human feeling can not establish that sense of comfort and security that is so necessary in creating a teaching environment that invites and encourages participation.
What patience contributes to instruction:
1 - Patience gives students time to learn.
2 - Patience takes into account the weaknesses of youth.
3 - Patience hopes for, assists the growth of, but does not anticipate maturity in students.
4 - Patience suffers fools gladly.
5 - Patience must be exemplified by teachers.
6 - Patience never loses sight of the goal.
7 - Patience gives rewards to the self.
While it may be unjust to expect uncompensated world from everyone, teachers accept the responsibility of extra work when they take up their calling.
The graceful acceptance of necessary tedium is one of the marks of great teaching, for it really is a gift of time, without which no student can learn.
Teachers are themselves foolish if they expect students to behave prudently and with discretion at all times.
[B]laming themselves for their students’ failure to learn can also hazard their success as teachers. A depletion of self-confidence only risks anxiety and diminished effect; and displays of that, to their students or colleagues, only undermines others’ confidence in them and in their work. It is not that teachers are without responsibility for their deficiencies. But it helps to remember that much responsibility for their students’ learning and maturing lies with others — when students are young, with their parents; when they are older, with themselves and their peers. So, also, it is always within teachers’ powers to tackle their own perceived deficiencies with more study, more practice, more reliance on advice from their colleagues."
"Be thyself... Perfection is not required of a teacher, but naturalness is."
Favourite Quotes:
"[A]s with every other art, mastery of teaching is gained through close attention of methods and materials as well as to refinement of native gifts."
"If the fire of knowledge is extinguished in teachers, even the best students are unlikely to reignite the torch and carry it to its ultimate destination — the achievement of understanding."
"By saying that the true teacher must master a body of knowledge, we distinguish knowledge from information... Information is to knowledge what sound is to music, the unorganized material out of which the structured result is composed."
"What matters is not the means of staying abreast of knowledge but the actual pursuit of that knowledge."
"[Teachers] have to lead their students to set their own high expectations, to imagine what they may achieve, and to aspire to achieve it."
"Without prepared minds, students are not likely to learn."
"Compassionate teachers bring their full personalities to class and do not act as if they have left significant parts of themselves at home."
"Teachers with no obvious signs of human feeling can not establish that sense of comfort and security that is so necessary in creating a teaching environment that invites and encourages participation."
"K Craigs
Dec 24, 2020, 6:53 AM (3 days ago)
to me
eBook: The Elements of Teaching
By: James Banner, Harold Cannon
Started: 04-JUN-2020
Finished: 27-JUN-2020
Learning
Authority
Ethics
Order
Imagination
Compassion
Patience
Tenacity
Character
Pleasure
It has one of the greatest first lines of teaching books: “Most teachers forget that teaching is an art.” Any teacher, new or experienced, young or old, will find words of wisdom peppered throughout this useful and thoughtfully articulated book. The structure is similar to a textbook as each chapter progresses through one of the ten elements of teaching, with a story to cap each chapter in thoughtful reflection. Would recommend to all teachers and parents, and would enjoy reading again every year or two as it is likely to remain a well of support and encouragement for many years to come.
Favourite Quotes:
[A]s with every other art, mastery of teaching is gained through close attention of methods and materials as well as to refinement of native gifts.
If the fire of knowledge is extinguished in teachers, even the best students are unlikely to reignite the torch and carry it to its ultimate destination — the achievement of understanding.
By saying that the true teacher must master a body of knowledge, we distinguish knowledge from information... Information is to knowledge what sound is to music, the unorganized material out of which the structured result is composed.
So teachers are and must be thinkers in their own right, not just doers who happen to teach and possess the skill to do so.
True teachers liberate the thinking of others.
A teacher must possess learning:
1 - Learning means knowing and mastering a subject.
2 - Learning embodies the act of learning.
3 - Learning requires keeping up with one’s subject.
4 - Learning conveys the spirit and love of learning to others.
5 - Learning means being open to the knowledge of others, especially of one’s own students.
6 - Learning provides the basis for independent thought.
7 - Learning justifies learning.
The teacher has joined a discipline, a professional guild of people who consider themselves guardians of, and contributors to, a branch of knowledge.
What matters is not the means of staying abreast of knowledge but the actual pursuit of that knowledge.
What teachers can do to gain, foster, deserve, and sustain authority:
1 - Authority requires a climate for serious learning.
2 - Authority means mastery of a subject.
3 - Authority is a matter of carriage and conduct as well as knowledge.
4 - Authority is acquired and accumulated.
5 - Authority encourages aspiration in students.
6 - Authority requires some formal distance between teachers and students.
7 - Authority emerges from an acknowledged difference in the status of teacher and student.
Great teachers and great schools are distinguished in large part from average teachers and average schools by the strength and longevity of ambition they instill in their students.
Greater knowledge of a subject and greater skill in conveying it are what distinguishes teachers not only from students but from parents and school board members and other professionals.
How to be ethical in teaching:
1 - The first rule of ethical teaching is to do no harm to students.
2 - Ethical teaching requires exclusive attention to students’ welfare.
3 - Ethical teaching means setting high standards and expectations and inspiring students to meet them.
4 - Ethical teaching means embodying the principles of teaching.
5 - Ethical teaching means teaching ethics.
6 - Ethical teaching means acknowledging students’ minds, ways, and beliefs.
7- Ethical teaching requires consideration of students’ differing but tenable viewpoints.
[Teachers] have to lead their students to set their own high expectations, to imagine what they may achieve, and to aspire to achieve it.
Common aspects of order that characterize all good teaching:
1 - Order requires the exertion of authority.
2 - Order arises from a teacher’s leadership.
3 - Order requires teaching to have direction and momentum.
4 - Order implies tranquility in the classroom.
5 - Order involves discipline.
6 - Order should be accepted as good.
7 - Order necessitates that teachers set good examples.
8 - Order requires the maintenance of standards.
Effective teaching requires that, failing their own self-imposed order, students experience the imposition of some outer order so that inner order may develop.
Much classroom discipline has to do with a teacher’s acceptance of the obligation to be disciplined in behaviour — that is, to be orderly, clear, accurate, and authentic in expression and purpose so as to be able to teach well and to serve the students’ good.
A goal achieved is better by far than one abandoned.
Consistency, dependability and fairness equal good discipline.
Students are learning satisfactorily when they are regularly reaching for the almost-attainable.
How imagination can serve teaching:
1 - Imagination in teaching begins with confidence that knowledge is transferable.
2 - Imaginative teachers find their own ways to enhance learning.
3 - Imagination means visualizing students’ futures.
4 - Imagination anticipates the needs and reactions of students.
5 - Imagination enhances and facilitated the presentation of subject matter.
6 - Imagination in teaching means being successfully creative.
7 - Imagination introduces surprise and excitement into teaching.
Without prepared minds, students are not likely to learn.
Teachers must venture into the expansive realm of possibilities; they must continually suspend any fear that something may not be within reach of their students. It is this quality of suspending fear that makes great teaching evangelical and sometimes irresistible. Its power arises from a teacher sustaining faith in the capacity of knowledge and understanding to enrich life, even when faced with the customary intractability of the human mind to enlarge itself.
How compassion manifests itself in the classroom:
1 - Compassion requires first that teachers know who their students are.
2 - Compassion demands an adherence to high standards.
3 - Compassion requires that teachers put themselves in their students’ places.
4 - Compassion makes approval enjoyable and correction palatable.
5 - Compassion requires avoiding favouritism.
6 - Compassion moves teachers to acknowledge their students’ struggles.
7 - Compassion means acting as a whole person.
8 - Compassion is evident in a steady devotion to each student’s future.
[C]ompassion is the basis for the necessary patience of teachers; no matter how inept or clumsy students’ attempts at grasping the material may be, compassion ensures that teachers, rather than being scornful or condescending, will be tolerant and understanding.
Compassionate teachers bring their full personalities to class and do not act as if they have left significant parts of themselves at home.
Teachers with no obvious signs of human feeling can not establish that sense of comfort and security that is so necessary in creating a teaching environment that invites and encourages participation.
What patience contributes to instruction:
1 - Patience gives students time to learn.
2 - Patience takes into account the weaknesses of youth.
3 - Patience hopes for, assists the growth of, but does not anticipate maturity in students.
4 - Patience suffers fools gladly.
5 - Patience must be exemplified by teachers.
6 - Patience never loses sight of the goal.
7 - Patience gives rewards to the self.
While it may be unjust to expect uncompensated world from everyone, teachers accept the responsibility of extra work when they take up their calling.
The graceful acceptance of necessary tedium is one of the marks of great teaching, for it really is a gift of time, without which no student can learn.
Teachers are themselves foolish if they expect students to behave prudently and with discretion at all times.
[B]laming themselves for their students’ failure to learn can also hazard their success as teachers. A depletion of self-confidence only risks anxiety and diminished effect; and displays of that, to their students or colleagues, only undermines others’ confidence in them and in their work. It is not that teachers are without responsibility for their deficiencies. But it helps to remember that much responsibility for their students’ learning and maturing lies with others — when students are young, with their parents; when they are older, with themselves and their peers. So, also, it is always within teachers’ powers to tackle their own perceived deficiencies with more study, more practice, more reliance on advice from their colleagues."
"Be thyself... Perfection is not required of a teacher, but naturalness is."
June 24, 2012
I found this book disappointing. There could be a lack of literature about the qualities of personality and character required of teachers as the authors claim but I hope this won't be the last word. I found the book rather conservative and stuffy. Their attitude toward students tended to be patronizing, almost condescending. I teach adults, my age or older. Yes, I know something they don't--or not as well--but I don't think of them as ignorant blank slates that I am going to imprint (and thus invested with outrageous power over them and their fate). I don't consider myself in a position of greater responsibility in regards to ethical behavior than anyone else in a work situation.
The "positive" example they gave of a teacher who kept order in her class was of a teacher so rigid, not a squeak of the students' personalities was likely to be heard and was in direct opposition to the kind of classroom that would develop the students' higher thinking such as critical thinking and creativity. Granted, she taught Latin, in which rote memorization is likely feature strongly. They should have found a better example.
I was rather horrified to see them espousing the notion that teachers should endlessly extend themselves to their students without pay and with potential harm to their personal lives--because teaching is a "calling."
For me, teaching is not a calling and I think that's true of many. I am a good teacher (based on evaluations by my program director, the appreciation of my fellow teachers, and student retention [students are not required to attend]), but I never set out to be a teacher. It was not a role I was attracted to. It's one I fell into. I will never be a great teacher because I lack that drive, but I suspect there are many good teachers out there who fell into it or chose it out of some practical consideration, not out of a calling. Regardless, our society has made it a profession and professional teachers, whether called or employed, should be paid for their time.
The value I see in this book is that it begins to voice a reason why teaching is an art, though this is not the book's purpose and thus that aspect is not systematically developed. It also attempts to clarify why some people should not be teachers. However, it still doesn't point to a practical way to weed out the better-off-not-teaching, either before they get in the classroom or after they're in.
The "positive" example they gave of a teacher who kept order in her class was of a teacher so rigid, not a squeak of the students' personalities was likely to be heard and was in direct opposition to the kind of classroom that would develop the students' higher thinking such as critical thinking and creativity. Granted, she taught Latin, in which rote memorization is likely feature strongly. They should have found a better example.
I was rather horrified to see them espousing the notion that teachers should endlessly extend themselves to their students without pay and with potential harm to their personal lives--because teaching is a "calling."
For me, teaching is not a calling and I think that's true of many. I am a good teacher (based on evaluations by my program director, the appreciation of my fellow teachers, and student retention [students are not required to attend]), but I never set out to be a teacher. It was not a role I was attracted to. It's one I fell into. I will never be a great teacher because I lack that drive, but I suspect there are many good teachers out there who fell into it or chose it out of some practical consideration, not out of a calling. Regardless, our society has made it a profession and professional teachers, whether called or employed, should be paid for their time.
The value I see in this book is that it begins to voice a reason why teaching is an art, though this is not the book's purpose and thus that aspect is not systematically developed. It also attempts to clarify why some people should not be teachers. However, it still doesn't point to a practical way to weed out the better-off-not-teaching, either before they get in the classroom or after they're in.
July 7, 2015
I thought this book did a good job of helping draw out some of the ways teachers can be effective. Even if I didn't agree with everything the author said, it helped me formulate my own ideas and plans on what I would like to do in the classroom.
September 7, 2022
I loved this book. It's one of the few about which I've thought "I'll definitely read this again someday" while reading it--when I am a teacher, I will. It feels covertly Christian to me, because its model of growth is the same. Both Christ and the pair of Banner and Cannon teach us an impossibly high standard of character and ask us to strive for it, even though we will fall short again and again. Both also remind us often of the surpassing dignity and potential of those with whom we interact, which inspire us to love them and work diligently to help them become what they can become. I took many notes and am sure they will help me be a better teacher in any setting.
January 23, 2023
The best book I’ve read yet on teaching. It’s not a self-help or psychology text, it’s not abstractly philosophical or mundanely practical. Instead it describes the character traits of excellent teachers, the virtues necessary for teaching, and by implication, the characteristics of good teaching itself. It accurately explained to me exactly what I loved about all the best teachers I’ve had in my life. I saw beloved teachers in my own past explicated on the page, and I was for the first time able to parse what made them excellent, and how I can draw upon it in my own career. It’s a book I’ll carry with me into all my future classrooms and recommend to any new teachers.
January 29, 2024
This book aims to identify the characteristics of the ideal teacher and illustrate how each of them could or should be implemented within the context of an active teacher. Though somewhat abstract, it is good for understanding the virtues of a good teacher (especially) within a classically rooted context.
However, I must disagree with Mr. Delbanco's accusation in the foreword that the book is out of date, since principles ought not change, especially when the principles describe the traits of good character.
However, I must disagree with Mr. Delbanco's accusation in the foreword that the book is out of date, since principles ought not change, especially when the principles describe the traits of good character.
June 28, 2017
As a first-year teacher, I found this book moderately helpful. It doesn't offer much in terms of strategies for improving yourself as a teacher, but it gets you thinking about what kind of qualities you want to show in your classroom.
December 14, 2017
This new edition could (should) have been updated even more. The Preface explains why they "kept changes... to a minimum" but, in reading the book, I disagree that that was the right move for this one.
October 23, 2017
I really enjoyed this book - probably the best out of the collection I have had to read for my education degree so far. I especially like that they paid some attention to ethics and morality.
October 28, 2021
The Forward makes it sound interesting, and it is really good to have a list as guidance, however, I didn’t like the style of writing and found the jokes hard to get. As I read on, it felt like platitude. The examples in each chapter are also quite weird.
January 20, 2017
I loved the fact that the book’s first chapter was on learning. It echoes very much how I feel about teaching. There is a tendency for people to imply that teaching is the stage after learning – a misconception that they are two separate processes and one is only fit to teach after he or she has successfully learnt. While I believe that the mastery of one’s subject should be one of the most important requirements for teachers, I do beg to differ on the fact that learning and teaching cannot occur simultaneously. In my own experience and in the stories of other teachers in my social circle, they seem to be two processes running concurrently, alongside each other with similar intensities. The more passionate the teacher is, it is also highly likely that the teacher is a fierce and dedicated learner – not just solely about his or her subject but to master the art of communicating, delivering and transmitting knowledge in an infectious way that energizes and benefits its recipients. If I may humbly draw a closer link between teaching and learning, it would be that the enthusiasm to learn sets alight the passion for sharing the fun and knowledge and thrilling sense of discovery with others, or one might also call it ‘teaching’. The first chapter not only affirmed my hunger to learn but also inspired me to learn even more fiercely in the pursuit of the art of teaching.
I started jotting down points for this reflection piece when I was halfway through the book and with the intention to focus on certain book chapters. I was drawn to the chapters of ‘Authority’ and ‘Ethics’ as mentioned in the book – the need for consistency and the need to set a living, walking example of the very virtues and values we wish to impart and how that earns teachers authority in the classroom and beyond, and right in the heart of students. I felt assured by the chapter of ‘Character’, which talks about how we ought to embrace our own natural personalities and simply be authentic and ‘real’ both in and out of the classroom, rather than assume a personality we admire but have no disposition to. As I read on, I felt charged and moved to do more and to give more to those I mentor. Interestingly, I choose to dedicate my next paragraph to reflecting about the book’s afterword.
The afterword addresses what the authors felt might be running through the minds of their readers. One particular thought shouted out to me –
‘If some conclude that we have taken teaching too seriously, others may think us naïve in believing, even hoping, that teachers will try to adopt the principles we have offered here. Do we ask too much?’
(Page 135)
This stirred up so many emotions within me. I truly empathize where the author was coming from because when I share my experiences, thoughts and efforts in teaching, people sometimes dismiss me or question if I am ‘doing too much’. As the book’s next sentence says ‘We think not.’ My soul celebrates knowing that I am not alone, I am free to indulge in my perfectionist pursuit of teaching standards, and I have so much more to aspire to. I am certain that the pursuit will be tough but also immensely rewarding. May the rewards not just be my own, but belong also to those I teach.
I started jotting down points for this reflection piece when I was halfway through the book and with the intention to focus on certain book chapters. I was drawn to the chapters of ‘Authority’ and ‘Ethics’ as mentioned in the book – the need for consistency and the need to set a living, walking example of the very virtues and values we wish to impart and how that earns teachers authority in the classroom and beyond, and right in the heart of students. I felt assured by the chapter of ‘Character’, which talks about how we ought to embrace our own natural personalities and simply be authentic and ‘real’ both in and out of the classroom, rather than assume a personality we admire but have no disposition to. As I read on, I felt charged and moved to do more and to give more to those I mentor. Interestingly, I choose to dedicate my next paragraph to reflecting about the book’s afterword.
The afterword addresses what the authors felt might be running through the minds of their readers. One particular thought shouted out to me –
‘If some conclude that we have taken teaching too seriously, others may think us naïve in believing, even hoping, that teachers will try to adopt the principles we have offered here. Do we ask too much?’
(Page 135)
This stirred up so many emotions within me. I truly empathize where the author was coming from because when I share my experiences, thoughts and efforts in teaching, people sometimes dismiss me or question if I am ‘doing too much’. As the book’s next sentence says ‘We think not.’ My soul celebrates knowing that I am not alone, I am free to indulge in my perfectionist pursuit of teaching standards, and I have so much more to aspire to. I am certain that the pursuit will be tough but also immensely rewarding. May the rewards not just be my own, but belong also to those I teach.
February 18, 2021
Essential read for any educator. Shaped my understanding as a teacher.
June 6, 2014
PROS
-Solid: I liked this book more than it's companion, Elements of Learning. I had my biases with the other one, I admit, and I was expecting it to be a discourse on metacognition as opposed to a list of some adjectives that obviously go well with students. There's a bit of this here, like, duh, teachers need to be ethical, but it does outline some surprising details that I may have overlooked otherwise.
-The "case studies": For the most part, the case studies, while occasionally suffering from corniness, made an overall good impression, and strayed from being sickeningly and unrealistically cheery--the failure stories were as useful as the success ones. The best were the ambiguous ones.
-Inspiring: You read little tips here and there, not explicitly stated per se, but present and noticeable. I made note of them and plan to use some of these techniques in the future.
CONS
-Occasionally purple: I could tell the authors obtained their background in the humanities. A wonderful sphere of academia, but some trademarks like "sesquipedalian lexicography" made me raise a brow. But, I will admit, this was much more pleasurable than charts, error bars, and boring data. Then there was the other extreme, where something obvious was beaten to death and back.
-Missing some theory: Again, this might be my scientific bias, but it would be nice to see some of the psychology of teaching, methods, active and passive learning, flipped and unflipped...not whole chapters because that would be dry, but just something more than adjectives.
OVERALL
-At first, I wanted to go in the middle of the road and give it 3 stars, as it isn't as stimulating as it can be. But, I did learn from it, and I trust that what I learned will help someone in the long run. And for that, I give it the benefit of inflating.
-Solid: I liked this book more than it's companion, Elements of Learning. I had my biases with the other one, I admit, and I was expecting it to be a discourse on metacognition as opposed to a list of some adjectives that obviously go well with students. There's a bit of this here, like, duh, teachers need to be ethical, but it does outline some surprising details that I may have overlooked otherwise.
-The "case studies": For the most part, the case studies, while occasionally suffering from corniness, made an overall good impression, and strayed from being sickeningly and unrealistically cheery--the failure stories were as useful as the success ones. The best were the ambiguous ones.
-Inspiring: You read little tips here and there, not explicitly stated per se, but present and noticeable. I made note of them and plan to use some of these techniques in the future.
CONS
-Occasionally purple: I could tell the authors obtained their background in the humanities. A wonderful sphere of academia, but some trademarks like "sesquipedalian lexicography" made me raise a brow. But, I will admit, this was much more pleasurable than charts, error bars, and boring data. Then there was the other extreme, where something obvious was beaten to death and back.
-Missing some theory: Again, this might be my scientific bias, but it would be nice to see some of the psychology of teaching, methods, active and passive learning, flipped and unflipped...not whole chapters because that would be dry, but just something more than adjectives.
OVERALL
-At first, I wanted to go in the middle of the road and give it 3 stars, as it isn't as stimulating as it can be. But, I did learn from it, and I trust that what I learned will help someone in the long run. And for that, I give it the benefit of inflating.
Read
May 5, 2012This is one of those inspirational books that just depresses you and robs you of hope. Why? The author's central claim seems to be "teachers are born, not made."
So if you are, for example, an inexperienced or inconsistent or awkward teacher, sorry. If you are not a star streaking across the sky of a child's mind, you should find another profession. Something in sanitation, preferably. Late at night. Something where your hands are always wet.
That snarked, it has some doily, grandmotherly advice about teaching:
p41: "Ethical teaching means acknowledging students' minds, ways, and beliefs. Teachers must elicit from their students their own, if only faintly understood, views even while infusing in students the teachers' own more mature thinking; they must ask their students to explain their behavior and convictions, as well as lead them to explore those convictions' appropriateness and strength. While all teaching is meant to develop students' thinking by adding to their knowledge, the purpose of teaching is to enlarge, not to manipulate, their minds and spirits."
So if you are, for example, an inexperienced or inconsistent or awkward teacher, sorry. If you are not a star streaking across the sky of a child's mind, you should find another profession. Something in sanitation, preferably. Late at night. Something where your hands are always wet.
That snarked, it has some doily, grandmotherly advice about teaching:
p41: "Ethical teaching means acknowledging students' minds, ways, and beliefs. Teachers must elicit from their students their own, if only faintly understood, views even while infusing in students the teachers' own more mature thinking; they must ask their students to explain their behavior and convictions, as well as lead them to explore those convictions' appropriateness and strength. While all teaching is meant to develop students' thinking by adding to their knowledge, the purpose of teaching is to enlarge, not to manipulate, their minds and spirits."
June 24, 2010
My brother got this for me shortly before (after?) I began teaching. I didn't read it until after I finished teaching at PPCMS. It's a succicint useful overview of the qualities needed to be an excellent teacher.
July 12, 2010
This is an excellent source for explaining the less tangible elements of teaching. It describes what a teacher innately understands but often can't explain. There are a few sections that are less edifying, but on the whole it is a great book.
July 2, 2008
slightly archaic writing, but teachers and soon-to-be teachers should read it!
July 28, 2008
Good reminders about what makes a good teacher, but nothing earth-shattering in the way of knew wisdom.
August 2, 2011
this book is amazing for teachers and teachers to be. for sure it will help you know more about ur teaching professions....
March 4, 2012
Very insightful. Further fueled my desire to be a teacher.
May 1, 2012
Should be required reading for all educators!
July 7, 2013
Found in the library today while procrasti-browsing. A welcome change in tone and substance from the required certification coursework reading.
January 18, 2014
Pedantic, preachy, and old school (not in the good way). Wouldn't recommend.
January 26, 2015
It had really great insights on the values needed to be a great and effective teacher.
December 24, 2016
Elegant and inspiring.
Read
July 16, 2017oh whoops ... fat thumbs + Kindle = accidental one-star rating. yikes!
November 15, 2017
This is an excellent book. It gives a different perspective to teaching which is often ignored by teacher themselves. Teaching is also an art. Teachers should be aware of their own characteristics and apply the good part in teaching.
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