Sam Pickering has been teaching, guiding, performing, and inspiring for more than forty years. As a young English teacher at Montgomery Bell Academy in Tennessee, his musings on literature and his maverick pedagogy touched a student named Tommy Schulman, who later wrote the screenplay for Dead Poets Society . Letters to a Teacher is a welcome reminder that teaching is a joy and an art. In ten graceful yet conversational letters addressed to teachers of all types, Pickering shares compelling, funny, always elucidating anecdotes from a lifetime in the classrooms of school and universities. His priceless, homespun observations touch on topics such as competition, curiosity, enthusiasm, and truth. More than a how-to guide, Letters to a Teacher is an invitation into the hearts and minds of an extraordinary educator and his students, and an irresistible call to reflection for the teacher who knows he or she must be compassionate, optimistic, respectful, firm, and above all dynamic. This is an indispensable guide for teachers and laymen alike.
I bought this book for a friend who is going was finishing up her Education degree. I read it first, though, because I found the character in Dead Poet's Society to be very inspirational, and I wanted to see what the inspiration for that had to say. I was not blown away-inspired by Pickering's words, but I found them amusing, good-natured, and thoughtful. For instance, when he writes about how "conservative" professors actually are, it was a nice and unique perspective on things, and much appreciated. I really think it would be a great gift to give someone you know that is looking into becoming a teacher or is graduating soon with a degree in Education.
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