What Can I Get Out of This?: Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics

by Carlo Rotella

An eloquent and moving story about the value and the pleasures of intellectual exploration—and why it matters beyond the classroom.
 
At a time when college students and their parents often question the "return on investment" from humanities courses, accomplished feature writer and English professor Carlo Rotella invites us into the minds of a group of skeptical first-year students who are ultimately transformed by a required literature class. In What Can I Get Out of This? he follows thirty-three students through his class to provide an intimate look at teaching and learning from their perspectives as well as his own. The students' reluctance—"How does this get me a job?"—transforms into insight as they wrestle with challenging books, share ideas, discover how to think critically, and form a community. In all these ways, they learn how to extract meaning from the world around them, an essential life skill. Confronting skeptics of higher education, this compassionate and inspiring book reveals the truth of what students actually experience in college.

Genres: Education

223 pages, Paperback

Published September 2, 2025

Reviews

[Aidan Vick]

Carlo is the best!!

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written account of--and argument for--the study of literature in college in a discussion-based classroom. I do the same kind of work, and Rotella's account rings very true to me. (I've also taken some tips and some techniques that I will steal for the coming spring's classes.) But beyond ringing true, it is inspirational to me as a teacher, and I hope it will be reassuring to parents and students that their dollars are well-spent on an education that can help students to see, understand, and be an active part of the world around them. Rotella demonstrates that great teaching is a craft--one that can be learned, and one appropriate for the dedication of a lifetime.