Why Teach?: In Defense of a Real Education

Why Teach?: In Defense of a Real Education

Mark Edmundson's essays reclaim college not as the province of high-priced tuition, career training, and interactive online courses, but as the place where serious people go to broaden their minds and learn to live the rest of their lives.<br /> <br />A renowned professor of English at the University of Virginia, Edmundson has felt firsthand the pressure on colleges to churn out a productive, high-caliber workforce for the future. Yet in these essays, many of which have run in places such as <I>Harper's</I> and the <I>New York Times</I>, he reminds us that there is more to education than greater productivity. With prose exacting yet expansive, tough-minded yet optimistic, Edmundson argues forcefully that the liberal arts are more important today than ever, and a necessary remedy for our troubled times. <I>Why Teach? </I>is brimming with the wisdom and inspiration that make learning possible.