Meeting the Tree of Life: A Teachers' Path

by John Tallmadge

Book by Tallmadge, John

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1997

Reviews

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite enjoyable. Made me want to get out in nature more as well as read Abbey, Muir, and Thoreau.

[Michael S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a personal narrative on teaching and finding what and how to teach. The author mixes his personal story with an examination of the literature he teaches and an exploration of places the literature describes. He does a great job. I enjoyed the entire book. I have read very few books on teaching that were good all the way through.

I recommend it to those who teach literature, to those who teach environmental literature in particular, and to those who enjoy reading about nature. Tallmadge goes to the Sierra, Arches, the Great Basin, the Wind River Mountains, and to the lakes of Minnesota.

[Marta E C R · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded down to 3. Perhaps nature writing is not my thing; I had a hard time with all the metaphors, and it was also somewhat more lofty, erudite, than I prefer. The chapters I liked the most were places where I have been myself (Katahdin and Arches). But this is a solid piece of writing, and an interesting view into the author’s early life. I’m guessing it’s in the style of the nature writers he most cited: Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, Edward Abbey, and Aldo Leopold. It did leave me wondering what happened at the end. Here’s a sentence I, as a lifelong learner, liked (on page 193): “All learning comes as a gift to the prepared mind.”

[Tom Hauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully personal account.

[Sidni Hendren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that this ended with the BWCA

[Pete Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was one of the books that made me want to be a teacher. It is a story about a teacher who learns from the outdoors how to be a better teacher. This may be my favorite book. I highly encourage it to anyone who ever has to teach anything.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tallmadge is a nature writer and scholar of environmental literature. Some of the middle chapters of this book deal with the time he lived here in Utah.

[Mallary · Rating 4 out of 5]

love it so far!!!