Review: Save the World on Your Own Time

[mshonle]

You may not agree with all of Stanley Fish's viewpoints, but it's well-worth reading Save the World on Your Own Time. Fish says that the duty of an academic is to only teach the direct subject of study.

This view is nicely encapsulated on page 81:
"The moment a teacher tries to promote a political or social agenda, mold the character of students,

Comments

[mmc12]

Even though I think teachers should be allowed to be political, I agree with the basic line of the book. I didn't learn any linguistics sophomore year, but I learned an awful lot of socialism XD (At Carleton, one of those wonderful Midwestern left-wing ivory towers, ;) not many people complained, however. I just would have liked some more time to talk about the material so I wouldn't have done so poorly in the class. I should have taken Psychology instead)

Does he get into K-12 education at all? I know that my mom is pretty much forbidden to discuss her own religious or political views in class (but plenty of other teachers do...).

[mshonle]

I guess like his style, he keeps the book in a very narrow scope, so he doesn't mention K-12 (so far as I recall). Actually, it's a series of scattered essays and articles he had published elsewhere, but nicely rewritten and packaged into this book.