Professors instruct Teachers as Scholars
By Pam Hersh
Renewed energy," "affirmation" and "intellectual
stimulation" were among the benefits 80 elementary
and secondary school teachers said they received
this year from a new program in which they had a
chance to reverse roles and become students for a
few hours.
The program, called Teachers as Scholars (TAS),
is part of the University's Teacher Preparation
Program. This past year it offered seven seminars
of three or four sessions each, taught by Princeton
professors. Topics ranged from Childhood and Empire
(taught by Uli Knoepflmacher, Patton Foundation
Professor of Ancient and Modern Literature) to
Pleasures of Poetry (by English professor James
Richardson) to Technology in American Life (by
history professor Michael Mahoney).
"In promoting the concept of lifelong learning
by teachers, TAS values and rewards excellence in
teaching," said Todd Kent, associate director of
the Teacher Preparation Program.
Had a ball, learned a lot
"This is exactly the type of community service
that Princeton University should be engaged in,"
said Stanley Katz, lecturer with rank of professor
in public and international affairs. Katz helped
develop the Teachers as Scholars program when he
was president of the American Council of Learned
Societies. In 1996 Harvard University was the first
school to embrace the concept, and since that time
the program has spread to colleges and universities
throughout the country.
The TAS students are not the only ones who
benefit from the seminars.
"I had a ball, and I learned a lot myself," said
Katz. He taught a seminar entitled Civil Society,
analogous to his undergraduate course, Social
Capital and Civil Society. "The participants were
bright, eager, diverse in their backgrounds and
opinions, and, because they are adults, the TAS
students gave me feedback and a perspective very
different from what I get in my undergraduate
classes."
Marvin Bressler, Straus Professor of Social
Sciences, Emeritus, who led a class called
Rethinking the Sixties, said, "Our colleagues in
elementary and secondary education are the most
underappreciated group in the entire education
enterprise. Anyone encountering their intelligence
and zeal would be encouraged about the quality of
instruction in our schools. There is much to be
learned from them."
TAS is supported by the Woodrow Wilson National
Fellowship Foundation, Horace Goldsmith Foundation,
Independent College Fund of New Jersey,
participating school districts and the
University.
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