A Journalist's Education in the Classroom: The Challenge of School Reform

by David S. Awbrey

Overview

After an impressive career in journalism, David S. Awbrey became a middle-school social studies teacher in Springfield, Missouri, a typical American community that he uses as a compelling case study to explore many of the social and academic problems facing education nationwide.
A Journalist's Education in the Classroom is an insightful, poignant and often humorous account of his experiences teaching medieval and Renaissance history. What Awbrey found in the classroom should alarm all Americans: students obsessed with popular culture and disengaged from academics, teachers intellectually unprepared for the 21st-century global society, and an educational establishment focused more on protecting its own power than on ensuring that the next generation possesses the scholastic skills necessary to advance American democracy and prosperity.
But Awbrey offers hope. Citing historical precedents, including Charlemagne's lifting Europe out of the ignorance of post-Roman Empire barbarism and the 15th-century Italian Renaissance, he examines how the rediscovery of classical learning preserved Western civilization and persuasively argues that America's future hinges on a similar restoration of the liberal arts to primacy in the nation's schools.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607097136
Publisher:	R&L Education
Publication date:	12/16/2010
Pages:	146
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

David S. Awbrey, an award-winning newspaper journalist, has taught philosophy and ethics at a community college, journalism at the university level, and middle-school social studies. He is the author of Finding Hope in the Age of Melancholy, a memoir of mid-life depression and recovery.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Why Teach? Why Pipkin 1

Chapter 2 Imagining History 11

Chapter 3 Teaching Charlemagne 21

Chapter 4 A Monk's Education 29

Chapter 5 Generation Global 39

Chapter 6 Class Matters 49

Chapter 7 Faith in History 59

Chapter 8 Courting Middle Schoolers 69

Chapter 9 Medieval Visions 79

Chapter 10 Miseducated Educators 87

Chapter 11 The Hell of Denial 97

Chapter 12 The Stalled Crusade 107

Chapter 13 People of History 117

Chapter 14 What the Teacher Learned 127

Acknowledgments 137

About the Author 139

Editorial Reviews

This is a great story—seasoned newspaper man takes up teaching social studies. Right off, David Awbrey brings education ideas and debates squarely upon the place where they really matter, his low-income middle-school students in Springfield, Missouri.Each act of instruction has to cope with the vicious mockery and merciless stereotyping of youth culture and school mores. Awbrey brings USA Today into the room only to hear one kid grumble, I don't just hate newspapers; I hate reading. Another one tosses the sports page aside and mutters, I can see it on ESPN's Sports Center. He has a student read a sentence describing monks copying ancient manuscripts, but she can only summarize it as Some guys are copying something with some kind of thingy. He opens a map of Europe and points at France as one quips, Isn't it true that all the French are gay? He tells them, half a world away kids your age are studying night and day to beat you, but they gaze back with expressions that impart, Yeh, yeh. Blah,blah, blah. So what? He tells them, Don't have children before age twenty-one, and one replies, But my cousin is fifteen and she has twins and she's doing fine. These surly, jaded, suffering, and semi-literate youths are tougher to handle than al

Mark Bauerlein

This extraordinarily well-written book serves as a searing reminder of the challenges implicit in a teacher's life, especially at the middle school level.

Education Next: Journal of Opinion And Research

This is one of the unique, insightful books I've read in the last 40 years about the reality of public education. With humor, humility and honesty, Awbrey draws on his experience as an award winning educational journalist, classroom teacher, and state department of education official. He is neither politically correct nor pompous, despite the fact that he knows far more than most people writing about education. Every prospective teacher, education journalist and College of Education professor who reads this will learn a lot about what's wrong, and what can be done to improve public schools.

Joe Nathan

In A Journalist's Education in the Classroom, David Awbrey pens an eye-opening account into the inner workings of American education through the eyes of a middle school history teacher. His energetic, tautly written narrative provides a humbling account of what it takes to engage and educate today’s students, and a cautionary tale for those who think improving America’s schools is simple work. This is a book that parents and policymakers would do well to read.

Rick Hess

How does a history-loving ex-journalist get working-class seventh graders in the Ozarks to care about Charlemagne? As a second-career teacher, David Awbrey has a lot to learn—and a lot to teach readers.

Joanne Jacobs

Unlike most "what I learned by teaching school" books, David Awbrey's is beautifully written, uncommonly perceptive and extraordinarily sensible in diagnosing what ails public education in the U.S. and how to cure it.

Chester E. Finn Jr.

This extraordinarily well-written book serves as a searing reminder of the challenges implicit in a teacher's life, especially at the middle school level.

Education Next: Journal of Opinion And Research

This extraordinarily well-written book serves as a searing reminder of the challenges implicit in a teacher's life, especially at the middle school level.

Education Next: Journal Of Opinion And Research