A Special relationship : our teachers and how we learned

This anthology of tributes to teachers is a heartwarming affirmation of the special relationship between teacher and student, as well as a testament to what Futrell, past president of the National Education Association, terms ``the miracle we call democracy.'' The dynamics of teaching and learning are illustrated in the recollections--most excerpted from autobiographies--of more than 60 distinguished Americans from various historical periods. We hear Aaron Copland describe his introduction to Nadia Boulanger, the formidable teacher of piano, as ``the decisive musical experience of my life.'' Dan Rather honors a journalism teacher who, in 1950 at Sam Houston State Teachers College, was skilled in ``sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.'' Floyd Patterson and Louis Armstrong, underprivileged in their youth, recall the warmth of their most memorable teachers. Board, a director of the Connecticut Education Association and a former teacher, concludes this collection of profiles of educators who made a difference in their students' lives with his own poignant memoir. Photos. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Board's idea of gathering famous Americans' remembrances of their most influential teachers into one volume is a worthy one. But the book's appeal will be greatly limited by the editor's decision to include excerpts of existing writings mainly by historical figures such as Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and relative unknowns such as Bliss Perry, Lew Wallace, and Harry Emerson Fosdick. While the book succeeds at showing glimpses of the democratizing role education has played throughout U.S. history, the memoirs and tributes collected here are too brief and uneven in emphasis to impart any coherent picture of that educational process as a whole. We're left instead with a patchwork quilt of impressions--colorful and engaging ones, to be sure. However, one wishes that Board had instead interviewed living Americans of accomplishment (and their teachers) who might speak directly to the interests and concerns of today's youths, and in a way that truly captures the special dynamic that occurs between teachers and students when education works as it ought--to free the mind and spirit. Contains more than 50 short essays and 37 photos, including those of such greats as Martin Luther King, Jr., Aaron Copland, Norman Rockwell, Margaret Mead, Marian Anderson, B. F. Skinner, George McGovern, and Dan Rather. ~--Mary Banas

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