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The Art of Teaching (Vintage) (Paperback) - Common
The noted classicist presents his educational methodology, within the context of history, from the Sophists to modern teaching.
268 pages, Paperback
First published November 21, 1949
45 people are currently reading
840 people want to read
About the author
Gilbert Highet
82 books62 followersCritic and classical scholar, Gilbert Highet was born in Scotland, educated at Oxford, and taught at Oxford and Columbia for forty years. Married to novelist Helen MacInnes. Best known for teaching in the humanities in the UK and USA.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
July 10, 2021
If this has been on your to-read list for awhile, like it was on mine, I really encourage you to pick it up and make a start! It was not a difficult read and it was very encouraging and helpful.
Gilbert Highet in The Art of Teaching never says anything about homeschooling, but he does comment on the different modes of teaching. And we have the opportunity as homeschooling families, to take advantage of the best model, which classrooms never can achieve.
Tutoring provides a better education.
"It is far easier to give two one hour lectures to classes of fifty or sixty than to tutor one or two pupils for two hours, questioning, objecting, remembering, following up, arguing, defending yourself, and counter attacking and always moving toward a definite end which must not be hurried or overemphasized. And after giving two such tutorials, you are exhausted."
A tutoring model of educating, Highet develops, leads the student individually through three phases: first, create something (read, think, write, do the math, etc.); second, the tutor critiques it and goes over it with the student; third, the student revises his work based on the feedback and the tutor commends his progress. Wash, rinse, repeat, at least weekly.
"But for the pupils, tutoring on this system is far the best kind of education."
We can know our students and guide them on their own path instead of simply shepherding a crowd toward a general direction. But it is a lot of work. He validates our end-of-the-day (or middle-of-the-day) experience when he admits: “And after giving two such tutorials, you are exhausted.”
But it is a good work. Let us persevere.
Teachers Must Themselves Read
"The alternatives are only these: to allow your teaching to petrify by neglect, or constantly to refresh it by transfusions of new vitality and interest from your own reading."
It is a difficult thing to fit in our own reading when we have diapers to change, dishes and laundry to wash, plus multiple students to teach. But cultivating our own intellectual and creative life is vital if we are going to have the energy and stamina to keep up a life lived to inspire others to learn and work hard. Reading and thinking is simply not an optional activity; it is life-blood.
"The mind which is exercised in books is not being strained and stretched. It is being used for its proper purpose."
And, remember, if you are trying to raise readers, you yourself must be a reader, for
everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. – Luke 6:40
Gilbert Highet in The Art of Teaching never says anything about homeschooling, but he does comment on the different modes of teaching. And we have the opportunity as homeschooling families, to take advantage of the best model, which classrooms never can achieve.
Tutoring provides a better education.
"It is far easier to give two one hour lectures to classes of fifty or sixty than to tutor one or two pupils for two hours, questioning, objecting, remembering, following up, arguing, defending yourself, and counter attacking and always moving toward a definite end which must not be hurried or overemphasized. And after giving two such tutorials, you are exhausted."
A tutoring model of educating, Highet develops, leads the student individually through three phases: first, create something (read, think, write, do the math, etc.); second, the tutor critiques it and goes over it with the student; third, the student revises his work based on the feedback and the tutor commends his progress. Wash, rinse, repeat, at least weekly.
"But for the pupils, tutoring on this system is far the best kind of education."
We can know our students and guide them on their own path instead of simply shepherding a crowd toward a general direction. But it is a lot of work. He validates our end-of-the-day (or middle-of-the-day) experience when he admits: “And after giving two such tutorials, you are exhausted.”
But it is a good work. Let us persevere.
Teachers Must Themselves Read
"The alternatives are only these: to allow your teaching to petrify by neglect, or constantly to refresh it by transfusions of new vitality and interest from your own reading."
It is a difficult thing to fit in our own reading when we have diapers to change, dishes and laundry to wash, plus multiple students to teach. But cultivating our own intellectual and creative life is vital if we are going to have the energy and stamina to keep up a life lived to inspire others to learn and work hard. Reading and thinking is simply not an optional activity; it is life-blood.
"The mind which is exercised in books is not being strained and stretched. It is being used for its proper purpose."
And, remember, if you are trying to raise readers, you yourself must be a reader, for
everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. – Luke 6:40
February 6, 2010
Over the years I have met people who were students of Gilbert Highet when he was a classics professor at Columbia. He was by all accounts a gentleman of the old school, a genteel and erudite scholar whose lectures on Vergil's Aeneid and many other classical works were widely appreciated. You get a sense as you read this book of just what an amazing teacher he must have been.
Highet's writing is lucid, engaging, and straightforward. The flow is enlivened by many personal anecdotes. He first discusses the qualities that a good teacher must possess: he must know the subjects he is teaching; he must like these subjects; he must like his pupils; he must know his pupils; and he must know "much else." The teacher, Highet informs us, "is a man or woman of exceptionally wide and lively intellectual interests."
He then discusses the teacher's methods. He focuses on the importance of preparation and communication. Other chapters include one on great teachers and their pupils (including Socrates and Jesus) and teaching in everyday life.
He makes many sound observations about what makes good teaching, and frequently points out many of the pitfalls that undermine the efforts of even the best teachers.
He is quick to point out the basis for the title of his book. Teaching is not a science, but an art, he informs us, and this book is an eloquent exposition of why that is so. I recommend this book to anyone thinking about a teaching career; for anyone who has already begun teaching it has even greater value.
Highet's writing is lucid, engaging, and straightforward. The flow is enlivened by many personal anecdotes. He first discusses the qualities that a good teacher must possess: he must know the subjects he is teaching; he must like these subjects; he must like his pupils; he must know his pupils; and he must know "much else." The teacher, Highet informs us, "is a man or woman of exceptionally wide and lively intellectual interests."
He then discusses the teacher's methods. He focuses on the importance of preparation and communication. Other chapters include one on great teachers and their pupils (including Socrates and Jesus) and teaching in everyday life.
He makes many sound observations about what makes good teaching, and frequently points out many of the pitfalls that undermine the efforts of even the best teachers.
He is quick to point out the basis for the title of his book. Teaching is not a science, but an art, he informs us, and this book is an eloquent exposition of why that is so. I recommend this book to anyone thinking about a teaching career; for anyone who has already begun teaching it has even greater value.
December 14, 2024
This book covered so much. It was extremely helpful and enlightening. It's broken up into four main parts - The Teacher, The Methods, Great Teachers & Pupils, and Everyday Teaching. We're all teachers in one way or another through parenting, employing, and instructing. It's important to acknowledge that and then to seek ways to most properly share the information with others. This book does that by considering great teachers of history, considering good and bad students, and looking at how teaching occurs in small ways in our daily lives. This is a book I will be referencing often.
August 13, 2012
This book was first published over sixty years ago. It still stands as a classic mind opener to anyone who is truly interested in becoming a teacher or in improving his or her skills as an educator. If you are only interested in band wagons and believe that no real learning has taken place before your appearance on the scene, this book will be a disappointment. Highet takes an analytical and historical approach to the greatest of teachers and their methods. In doing so, he provides one of the finest examinations of the methodology of the Classic Greek School a layman could hope to find.
Highet encourages a love for learning, a love for children and a passion for sharing only the finest with our students. My guess is that he would have been opposed to "dumbing down" on many counts, but primarily because of the lack of respect it shows for the potential of the student.
In a mere five pages, Highet manages to encapsulate the essence of what made Jesuit education so distinctive and valuable to the world of ideas. It makes it clear to those who read his words these many years later that the loss of Jesuit identity and methodology at their own institutions which took place in the end of the twentieth century has been a tragic loss.
By the time I left teaching after thirty years, I think I was on my fifteen to twentieth re-read of this work. I still needed to be open and keep up to date with the latest theories and findings and wade through the flood of latest and greatest found in journals and theses. More is being revealed. Let us make no mistake about it, though, Highet was a giant of a mind with an awesome soul. His attitude toward teaching made this veteran much less resentful about the lack of monetary reward my career has brought me. It made me feel humble and honored to have been part of a noble tradition of individuals who drank deeply from the well springs of the fount of ideas, culture, humanism and spirituality. It inspired me to want to redouble my efforts to bring yet another generation to that spring for nurture that they might live life more deeply and, in turn, attempt to leave the world better than it was upon their arrival.
Highet encourages a love for learning, a love for children and a passion for sharing only the finest with our students. My guess is that he would have been opposed to "dumbing down" on many counts, but primarily because of the lack of respect it shows for the potential of the student.
In a mere five pages, Highet manages to encapsulate the essence of what made Jesuit education so distinctive and valuable to the world of ideas. It makes it clear to those who read his words these many years later that the loss of Jesuit identity and methodology at their own institutions which took place in the end of the twentieth century has been a tragic loss.
By the time I left teaching after thirty years, I think I was on my fifteen to twentieth re-read of this work. I still needed to be open and keep up to date with the latest theories and findings and wade through the flood of latest and greatest found in journals and theses. More is being revealed. Let us make no mistake about it, though, Highet was a giant of a mind with an awesome soul. His attitude toward teaching made this veteran much less resentful about the lack of monetary reward my career has brought me. It made me feel humble and honored to have been part of a noble tradition of individuals who drank deeply from the well springs of the fount of ideas, culture, humanism and spirituality. It inspired me to want to redouble my efforts to bring yet another generation to that spring for nurture that they might live life more deeply and, in turn, attempt to leave the world better than it was upon their arrival.
September 23, 2022
If you teach, train, coach, educate, or even manage others, and can overcome the direct masculine-exclusive narrative of the time this was written (late 1940s), you can distil truths and historic gold nuggets that are one illuminating and revisionist, in the best possible way. Seriously well laid out book, in the fashion of dale carnegie meets virginia woolf.
April 8, 2018
This is a product of a far different time, and, thus, we must acknowledge the sexism and the subtle racism while still recognizing the jewels of wisdom contained in these pages. Highet outlines, with humor, anecdote, erudition, and a breezy style, truly fundamental principles of teaching, which serve to both inspire and educate anyone in the teaching profession.
February 18, 2010
Thus far my favorite book from the Education Practicum.
Addendum: one of my favorite books from almost 3 years at NSA :) Now on a mission to read everything this man ever wrote.
Addendum: one of my favorite books from almost 3 years at NSA :) Now on a mission to read everything this man ever wrote.
June 4, 2010
A classic always worth re-reading
October 12, 2024
Initially put off by the cover, which looks like the album design of the Cure’s Friday I’m in Love, I was finally prompted by The Heights Forum to read Gilbert Highet’s The Art of Teaching. The fact that Highet was a classical teacher (the chair of Latin and Greek at Columbia) and a Renaissance man himself makes this book delightful. His erudition and knowledge of philosophy, art, and music are astounding.
As a teacher and tutor for nearly 25 years myself, I have often felt like a lone wolf, trying to buck today’s low standards. Reading Gilbert confirmed many of my own conclusions about the mediocrity of modern curricula, teaching and testing methods, and classroom environment. If any teacher truly ponders the great responsibility he has, it can be daunting not to worry about each child that Providence has put into his hands.

“Bad teaching wastes a great deal of effort, and spoils many lives which might have been full of energy and happiness . . . one of the chief duties of a teacher is to stimulate,” Highet writes in his introduction. Gilbert endeavors to persuade teachers, who have never been wealthy, of the silver linings of their profession. Unlike others working in the mill-horse round routine, we get to spend our time on valuable, exciting subjects that many would study for their own sake if they had the time. Then there is “the happiness of making something . . . You take a living mind and mold it.” Those teachers who do not enjoy these rewards often burn out and leave the profession. Gilbert writes,
It is bitter to be poor; but it is torture to spend your life’s energy, year after year, trying to awaken understanding and appreciation of genuinely important things in what seem to be a collection of spoiled, ill-mannered boobies. . . It is like giving a blood transfusion, and then seeing your precious blood spilt on the ground and trodden into the mud.
How does one avoid this all too-common fate? Primarily a teacher must know his subject: “Its upper regions must be clear to him, at least in outline . . . a limited field of material stirs very few imaginations.” Continuously learning in their field, teachers should have an intellectual life. Clearly in the great books camp, Gilbert advises teachers in their class preparations and studies to “always read the original sources.” A teacher’s knowledge seems similar to what Aristotle, in the Rhetoric, says is the most persuasive element of a speaker, his ethos. Listeners trust that a knowledgeable speaker is speaking the truth.
Second, a teacher must enjoy his subject. Such enjoyment will make it “easy to teach when you are tired, and delightful when you are feeling fresh. You will never be at a loss for a new illustration, for a topic of discussion, for an interesting point of view.” Teachers cannot fake the wisdom and enthusiasm that flows from a distinguished mind:
“Whenever [students] meet a man or woman who does not always say what they expect, who tells them novel stories about strange aspects of the world, who throw unexpected light on what they sadly know as ordinary dull life, who seems so completely alive, sensitive, energetic, and as zestful as they themselves, they usually admire him or her.”
This admiration allows teachers to lead.
Thirdly, a teacher must like his students, even in groups. “If you do not actually like boys and girls, or young men and women, give up teaching,” Gilbert says. I have often wondered why it is tough to get truly mad at middle schoolers, and I was surprised to read, but persuaded by, Gilbert’s assertion that real vice only exists in adults: “[The young] have no faults, except the very ones they are asking you to eradicate: ignorance, shallowness, and inexperience.” Gilbert recommends getting to know one’s students by occasionally seeing them off-duty: “Give them a party now and then, or play games with them.” This last piece of advice is too true. Playing basketball with my inner-city boys in Chelsea, MA, broke down barriers and made teaching them so much easier. Frankly, it is good for students to beat you, to see you fail at something, but to see you do so with the same effort and grace that you ask of them each day.
When a teacher enjoys his subject and enjoys his students, the door is opened to another element of teaching Gilbert highlights: humor. I have often thought that one does not really know a subject until he can joke about it. I was glad to see Gilbert continue his chapter on “The Teacher” by reflecting on the importance of humor, which keeps students “alive and attentive because they are never quite sure what is coming next.” Making class pleasant this way is the “secret sauce” as, “fifty-five minutes with five minutes of laughter is worth twice as much as sixty minutes of unvaried work.” Gilbert’s idea of a teacher is like that of Socrates, in which that teaching is a sort of friendship, with common inquiry the shared object. “When people laugh together, they cease to be young and old, master and pupils, workers and driver, jailer and prisoners, they become a single group of human beings enjoying its existence.” Thus, humor is the sine qua non that binds a class. Having a “rapport and give-and-take” will make students enjoy class, liberating them do “nine times better work than thirty individuals under compulsion.” Gilbert presents Socrates as the teacher par excellence, embodying these characteristics. He describes the Socratic Method:
This system is the most difficult, the least common, and the most thorough way to teach. It is most difficult because it demands constant alertness, invariable good humor, complete earnestness, and utter self-surrender to the cause of truth, on the part of both teacher and pupil. It is the least common because it is expensive in time, money and effort . . . The tutor gets to know [students] very well- better than their parents know them, better sometimes than they know themselves. He cannot, in such a close relationship, be tyrannous or chilly. Often, he becomes both an example and a friend. He learns the pupils’ weaknesses and corrects them by gentle steady pressure.
Gilbert identifies many other qualities of an excellent teacher, including having a good memory, a strong will, and a determination to achieve excellence with one’s students. Kindness he writes, is essential. “Few things will diminish the difficulty, the pain, and the fatigue like the kindness of a good teacher,” he says, and he explores in detail how to help gifted students, slower students, and even the mentally ill.
But my main practical take-away from The Art of Teaching came from Gilbert’s approach to assessment. Echoing Thomas Arnold’s lamentation more than a century earlier, Highet prefers viva voce assessments, pointing out how very new written examinations are and comparing them to “an assembly-line at the Ford works.” In other times, “higher examinations were all oral…Written questions with written answers are ‘tests’, ‘quizzes’, or ‘examinations.’ Horrible words. My soul sickens at their very sound.”
I share Gilbert’s sensibilities. I have used oral quizzes occasionally, especially when an absent student missed a literature seminar. This year, however, on the first day, students took a viva voce on their summer reading, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, while the rest of the class began reading Tom Sawyer. I now intend to give this type of assessment more frequently. Practically, it is perfect deliberative practice, allowing me to match a student’s ability or interests with my questions. Often students are more willing to share their ignorance with me privately, asking me questions about a text that I doubt they would ask openly in class. Bespoke, not made-to-measure, students certainly enjoy viva voce assessments more than written. How I would have enjoyed a viva voce with Gilbert Highet!
As a teacher and tutor for nearly 25 years myself, I have often felt like a lone wolf, trying to buck today’s low standards. Reading Gilbert confirmed many of my own conclusions about the mediocrity of modern curricula, teaching and testing methods, and classroom environment. If any teacher truly ponders the great responsibility he has, it can be daunting not to worry about each child that Providence has put into his hands.

“Bad teaching wastes a great deal of effort, and spoils many lives which might have been full of energy and happiness . . . one of the chief duties of a teacher is to stimulate,” Highet writes in his introduction. Gilbert endeavors to persuade teachers, who have never been wealthy, of the silver linings of their profession. Unlike others working in the mill-horse round routine, we get to spend our time on valuable, exciting subjects that many would study for their own sake if they had the time. Then there is “the happiness of making something . . . You take a living mind and mold it.” Those teachers who do not enjoy these rewards often burn out and leave the profession. Gilbert writes,
It is bitter to be poor; but it is torture to spend your life’s energy, year after year, trying to awaken understanding and appreciation of genuinely important things in what seem to be a collection of spoiled, ill-mannered boobies. . . It is like giving a blood transfusion, and then seeing your precious blood spilt on the ground and trodden into the mud.
How does one avoid this all too-common fate? Primarily a teacher must know his subject: “Its upper regions must be clear to him, at least in outline . . . a limited field of material stirs very few imaginations.” Continuously learning in their field, teachers should have an intellectual life. Clearly in the great books camp, Gilbert advises teachers in their class preparations and studies to “always read the original sources.” A teacher’s knowledge seems similar to what Aristotle, in the Rhetoric, says is the most persuasive element of a speaker, his ethos. Listeners trust that a knowledgeable speaker is speaking the truth.
Second, a teacher must enjoy his subject. Such enjoyment will make it “easy to teach when you are tired, and delightful when you are feeling fresh. You will never be at a loss for a new illustration, for a topic of discussion, for an interesting point of view.” Teachers cannot fake the wisdom and enthusiasm that flows from a distinguished mind:
“Whenever [students] meet a man or woman who does not always say what they expect, who tells them novel stories about strange aspects of the world, who throw unexpected light on what they sadly know as ordinary dull life, who seems so completely alive, sensitive, energetic, and as zestful as they themselves, they usually admire him or her.”
This admiration allows teachers to lead.
Thirdly, a teacher must like his students, even in groups. “If you do not actually like boys and girls, or young men and women, give up teaching,” Gilbert says. I have often wondered why it is tough to get truly mad at middle schoolers, and I was surprised to read, but persuaded by, Gilbert’s assertion that real vice only exists in adults: “[The young] have no faults, except the very ones they are asking you to eradicate: ignorance, shallowness, and inexperience.” Gilbert recommends getting to know one’s students by occasionally seeing them off-duty: “Give them a party now and then, or play games with them.” This last piece of advice is too true. Playing basketball with my inner-city boys in Chelsea, MA, broke down barriers and made teaching them so much easier. Frankly, it is good for students to beat you, to see you fail at something, but to see you do so with the same effort and grace that you ask of them each day.
When a teacher enjoys his subject and enjoys his students, the door is opened to another element of teaching Gilbert highlights: humor. I have often thought that one does not really know a subject until he can joke about it. I was glad to see Gilbert continue his chapter on “The Teacher” by reflecting on the importance of humor, which keeps students “alive and attentive because they are never quite sure what is coming next.” Making class pleasant this way is the “secret sauce” as, “fifty-five minutes with five minutes of laughter is worth twice as much as sixty minutes of unvaried work.” Gilbert’s idea of a teacher is like that of Socrates, in which that teaching is a sort of friendship, with common inquiry the shared object. “When people laugh together, they cease to be young and old, master and pupils, workers and driver, jailer and prisoners, they become a single group of human beings enjoying its existence.” Thus, humor is the sine qua non that binds a class. Having a “rapport and give-and-take” will make students enjoy class, liberating them do “nine times better work than thirty individuals under compulsion.” Gilbert presents Socrates as the teacher par excellence, embodying these characteristics. He describes the Socratic Method:
This system is the most difficult, the least common, and the most thorough way to teach. It is most difficult because it demands constant alertness, invariable good humor, complete earnestness, and utter self-surrender to the cause of truth, on the part of both teacher and pupil. It is the least common because it is expensive in time, money and effort . . . The tutor gets to know [students] very well- better than their parents know them, better sometimes than they know themselves. He cannot, in such a close relationship, be tyrannous or chilly. Often, he becomes both an example and a friend. He learns the pupils’ weaknesses and corrects them by gentle steady pressure.
Gilbert identifies many other qualities of an excellent teacher, including having a good memory, a strong will, and a determination to achieve excellence with one’s students. Kindness he writes, is essential. “Few things will diminish the difficulty, the pain, and the fatigue like the kindness of a good teacher,” he says, and he explores in detail how to help gifted students, slower students, and even the mentally ill.
But my main practical take-away from The Art of Teaching came from Gilbert’s approach to assessment. Echoing Thomas Arnold’s lamentation more than a century earlier, Highet prefers viva voce assessments, pointing out how very new written examinations are and comparing them to “an assembly-line at the Ford works.” In other times, “higher examinations were all oral…Written questions with written answers are ‘tests’, ‘quizzes’, or ‘examinations.’ Horrible words. My soul sickens at their very sound.”
I share Gilbert’s sensibilities. I have used oral quizzes occasionally, especially when an absent student missed a literature seminar. This year, however, on the first day, students took a viva voce on their summer reading, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, while the rest of the class began reading Tom Sawyer. I now intend to give this type of assessment more frequently. Practically, it is perfect deliberative practice, allowing me to match a student’s ability or interests with my questions. Often students are more willing to share their ignorance with me privately, asking me questions about a text that I doubt they would ask openly in class. Bespoke, not made-to-measure, students certainly enjoy viva voce assessments more than written. How I would have enjoyed a viva voce with Gilbert Highet!
July 27, 2017
Really a surprisingly good survey of the various arts and crafts that come together in great teaching. As I'll be teaching a creative writing class starting this fall to H.S. students (home school co-op), the advice here is well-timed.
The book had its ups and downs, and Highet is not embarrassed to cover the most mundane areas (don't mumble!). Taken as a whole, the advice is bracing. I think what I most learned is the way teaching is an act of creative empathy; good teachers know their students and know what each student is absorbing and why.
At the end, Highet turns his attention to the great teachers of the classical world: Socrates, Plato, and Jesus. He describes the Hebrew milieu of Jesus' time, and describes Jesus' teaching style, in ways I've never heard, despite decades of sermons. Truly eye-opening.
The book had its ups and downs, and Highet is not embarrassed to cover the most mundane areas (don't mumble!). Taken as a whole, the advice is bracing. I think what I most learned is the way teaching is an act of creative empathy; good teachers know their students and know what each student is absorbing and why.
At the end, Highet turns his attention to the great teachers of the classical world: Socrates, Plato, and Jesus. He describes the Hebrew milieu of Jesus' time, and describes Jesus' teaching style, in ways I've never heard, despite decades of sermons. Truly eye-opening.
November 30, 2018
Worth reading again.
Read
November 6, 2024unfortunately i will be logging my grad school books
October 20, 2019
It had great information, boring and I couldn't finish it. I wasn't motivated to learn the art of teaching anymore.
December 16, 2025
Dit boek brengt een docent niet alleen in de gelegenheid om zijn werk bijzonder te waarderen, het geeft hem ook de mogelijkheid om te reflecteren op zichzelf, zijn vak en zijn methodes. Als je lesgeeft is dit boek van onschatbare waarde. Een speciaal bedankje aan Imre🫶
July 8, 2015
Overall this was a pretty good book and had some good nuggets of wisdom to offer the reader. It was written in the 1950's and it shows. A modern reader at first pass may determine that this book is dated "white man worship" filled with sexist language an imagery. I don't think that is necessarily the case. The author's referring to most teachers (especially in higher education) and most students (again especially in higher education) as male is more of a reflection of his time rather than any misogynistic intent on the author's part. To throw the "baby out with the bath water" so to speak would be to miss out on some good advice on what solid teaching looks like. The author raises some concerns about education that seem like they could have come from today's newlines. It has encouraged me in to see that there have always been issues with teaching and being a good teacher. It was well worth my time to read and has given me much to ponder and consider as I continue my journey of an educator.
January 20, 2014
Not teacher gift basket fodder. A very rewarding read, informative, sometimes even funny. As another reviewer said, it's definitely worth re-reading. Complex, but not overly so. Makes me want to read some Aristotle.
May 7, 2015
Considering my career as a teacher I had different expectations. The book, however, took teaching into another level that's so broad. The book is filled with other people's experiences in the realm of teaching.
August 12, 2016
Next to The Seven Laws of Teaching by Gregory, this is the most helpful book I have read on the craft of teaching. She rightly recognizes that all teaching is character formation and his advice Ames toward that end.
July 12, 2012
My friend Andy recommended this book after my year of service with Americorps...I loved it and still use today as a reference and to refresh my reasons for wanting to teach!
Want to read
October 28, 2009Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 3, as one of six books on learning and teaching.
June 9, 2021
A breezy, erudite work written in a real twentieth century, lighthearted intellectual style that I appreciate. Definitely felt like an inadvertent paean to a mode of literary life and erudite talk that seems less and less valued and in vogue.
The content of the book was good. There were certainly rambling sections which were mostly speculative and not particularly interesting, but other sections — his comparative analysis of the teaching methods of Jesus of Nazareth and Socrates, and description of the evolution of teaching style in the 19th and 20th centuries — were marvelous, informative and written in the author’s distinctive style.
I do find convincing the basic premises that teaching is an art, not a science, and that teaching is variously embedded in so much human activity— we just often use the wrong verb to describe what’s going on.
The content of the book was good. There were certainly rambling sections which were mostly speculative and not particularly interesting, but other sections — his comparative analysis of the teaching methods of Jesus of Nazareth and Socrates, and description of the evolution of teaching style in the 19th and 20th centuries — were marvelous, informative and written in the author’s distinctive style.
I do find convincing the basic premises that teaching is an art, not a science, and that teaching is variously embedded in so much human activity— we just often use the wrong verb to describe what’s going on.
October 15, 2025
A warm, witty, delightful, and blissfully non-PC celebration of the teacher's vocation from a woefully bygone era. A good book on teaching should impress upon the reader both the loftiness and the joy of the profession, and Highet does both wonderfully in very engaging prose. He earns extra props for his incorporation of the historical dimension, although that chapter is somewhat odd and incomplete, as is the final chapter, which is little more than rambling—erudite and interesting rambling, but nonetheless rambling. Still worth several reads.
April 24, 2024
Classic lessons for teachers.
“That is one of the dangers to which all teachers are liable. If they wish to be interesting, they are apt to be superficial. If they strive to be thorough, they can become boring. It takes willpower to prepare a course for teaching and stick to the plan once worked out.”
(From CAP)
“That is one of the dangers to which all teachers are liable. If they wish to be interesting, they are apt to be superficial. If they strive to be thorough, they can become boring. It takes willpower to prepare a course for teaching and stick to the plan once worked out.”
(From CAP)
July 8, 2020
Excellent book. It’s practical, personal, and even profound at times. Highet lays out what he has to say about the art of teaching in a clear and organized way, but he makes this plan come alive with many examples as well as personal anecdotes.
July 15, 2022
In my opinion, this is hardly a good book on teaching. In a few spots he praises the Nazi school system and contradicts himself a couple times. But it does give a pretty good overview of a couple philosophers and how they taught.
November 15, 2022
This is a good read as a teacher. While it is painfully dated at times, this man has a very romantic view of teaching. I appreciate how seriously he takes the profession, and it inspires me to be better.
December 26, 2025
What a fantastic little book! It is written in that charming mid-twentieth century style that is clear and not dumb and is in short supply in contemporary writing. Highly recommend to my homeschool friends and anyone interested in being an excellent teacher.
January 15, 2019
First two thirds were very good. The last third was not as good. Solid, down-to-earth, common-sense instruction given.
August 9, 2020
Crucial teaching skills in a short book.
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