In Praise of Pedagogy

by David Starkey

In recent years, the old connection between ars poetica and ars rhetorica has been reclaimed thanks in large measure to these two editors...In Praise of Pedagogy provides the strongest possible confirmation of the richness that results when we think and write creatively about our lives in the classroom...
- Ken AutreyIn Praise of Pedagogy is unarguably a pedagogical work. Yet you won't find a dry, stuffy line anywhere in it. Front to back, this can't-put-it-down book offers creative writing by teachers about teaching writing. In poems and short fiction, over 60 contributors from high school and college classrooms deal with the myriad moments and matters nearly all English instructors are familiar with.

As Ken Autrey notes in the Foreword, these pieces "offer tributes, capture poignant moments, and recount anecdotes, but they also develop arguments, defend positions, and explain theories." Somewhere in our bones we know that poetry and fiction can serve powerful pedagogical purposes. Here is proof upon proof, and not a line of it pedantic. Editors Bishop and Starkey additionally provide convincing essays on the value of bringing together composition and creative writing pedagogies.

You can read In Praise of Pedagogy, feel enriched by the experience, and put it back on the shelf. There is a far greater chance, though, that you're going to respond to the reading by writing. Recommended for English instructors at secondary and college levels.

230 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

David Starkey directs the creative writing program at Santa Barbara City College.
Among his poetry collections are Starkey's Book of States (Boson Books, 2007), Adventures of the Minor Poet (Artamo Press, 2007), Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems (Artamo, 2006), David Starkey's Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2002) and Fear of Everything, winner of Palanquin Press's Spring 2000 chapbook contest. A Few Things You Should Know about the Weasel will be published by the Canadian press Biblioasis next year.
In addition, over the past twenty years he has published more than 400 poems in literary journals such as American Scholar, Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cutbank, Faultline, Greensboro Review, The Journal, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, Nebraska Review, Notre Dame Review, Poet Lore, Poetry East, South Dakota Review, Southern Humanities Review, Southern Poetry Review, Sycamore Review, Texas Review, and Wormwood Review. He has also written two textbooks: Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008) and Poetry Writing: Theme and Variations (McGraw-Hill, 1999). With Paul Willis, he co-edited In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (Iowa, 2005), and he is the editor of Living Blue in the Red States (Nebraska, 2007). Keywords in Creative Writing, which he co-authored with the late Wendy Bishop, was published in 2006 by Utah State University Press.