Teaching What We Do

What goes on in a college classroom? For all that has been written in recent years about higher education, scant attention has been paid to the heart of the matter: teaching. These 13 essays by members of the Amherst College Faculty aim to correct that oversight. In defining itself, Amherst College focuses on the life of the classroom. No faculty member, no matter how senior, is excused from teaching; no cadre of graduate students shoulders the load of introductory courses. To teach is the central mission of each professor. But it is seldom the only mission, since almost everyone who teaches at Amherst also pursues research. Maintaining a balance between the two activities is sometimes frustrating, but more often nourishing and exhilarating. In his foreword, college president Peter R. Pouncey speaks of the ways in which teaching and research cross-fertilise each other. These essays demonstrate that the pleasures and challenges of the classroom are inexhaustible. Contributors include Benjamin DeMott (English), George Greenstein (astronomy), Rhonda Cobham (black studies), Austin Sarat (political science), Tekla Harms (geology), Peter R. Pouncey (classics), Jay Caplan and Marie-Helene Huet (Romance languages), Lisa Raskin (psychology and neuroscience), William H. Pritchard (English), Jan E. Dizard (sociology), William E. Kennick (philosophy), Robert H. Romer (physics), and Robert Sweeney (fine arts).