cover image Education of a Teacher

Education of a Teacher

Howard R. Wolf. Prometheus Books, $44 (299pp) ISBN 978-0-87975-374-0

This collection of essays by a professor of English at the State University of New York at Buffalo is a distillation of his more than two decades of experience with students. Wolf's chronicle of American culture in relation to university life has an autobiographical framework. The '60s, shaped by the Vietnam war and student rebellion, were a high-water mark in his evolution as a charismatic teacher for whom the classroom is a microcosm. The quiescence of students in the '70s and their careerism in the '80s are currents that render his classes a testing ground of values as he attempts to make English literature relevant to young adults. Wolf's support of the thesis that learning and human development must be connected is explored in a wide swath of reference and personal vignettes. He is the author of Forgive the Father. (September 20)