On the discussion class

Today is the first day of teaching for me at my new university and as I am plunged back into the world I find myself reading articles on the Intatweb about how to give effective lectures ten minutes before I start lecturing (as if this will somehow help!) So I revisited “On The Discussion Class”:http://teaching.uchicago.edu/tutorial/renfield.shtml by James Redfield, which is actually about the joys of lecturing. This is one of my favorite essays on teaching of all time. It works for me mostly because I am a product of the University of Chicago and Hyde Park, although not nearly to the same degree that Redfield is (he is Robert’s son). But I also love the deeply learned, eloquent, and very humble tone of it, and the deep sensitivity and amount of thought that gets packed into what is, after all, a very short piece.