Have chalk, will travel

University professors are no less aware than the rest of the population of the dismal education most Americans receive in their pre-college years, and although we sometimes write columns about it, few of us actually do anything. Of course some of my colleagues, especially social scientists, do study educational practice and help make policy: for example, sociologist Thomas Espenshade GS ’72 and economist and professor of public affairs Cecilia Rouse, who is currently a member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. But there are structural reasons why actual teaching is rare. If you are an assistant professor, you need to publish, not spend time in any classroom, much less one with cubbies; and once you have tenure, you’re wont to think of yourself as too grand to have to keep order in a room filled with kids. (I am not excusing the attitudes in this last sentence, just telling it like it is.) And that’s to say nothing of state-mandated teaching certification, which most of us do not have.

Before readers think that I’m trying to win praise for my current adventure, let me stress that I know full well that teaching at a famous private school for only half a month, and without ultimate responsibility, is not doing anything to help solve America’s problems. But I have nearly no prior experience with teaching school, and doing something new does have a way of making one think. So here are some thoughts of mine.

Why am I teaching at Exeter? The simple answer is that I was asked, and it was a flattering invitation. Boarding schools have a certain romance, at least to someone who did not attend one, and it was an opportunity for me to see where some of Princeton’s most talented students — luminous and quirky people such as Juliet Moore ’09, Yujhan Claros ’10 and Mark Jia ’10 — learned their stuff. And really learned it: Harvey Lederman ’08’s command of Greek was quite possibly better than mine even when he was a freshman, and it’s deja vu all over again in New Hampshire since I’m now getting to read the “Odyssey” four times a week with another Lederman whiz kid, Harvey’s brother Isaac.

Why am I not teaching at an underprivileged public school? Again, there’s a simple answer: I was not asked. Perhaps I should have seized the initiative myself, but could someone in my position — without certification and with a special interest in teaching linguistics, a subject that, unfortunately, has almost no status in secondary-school education — persuade a principal to take a gamble, even at little monetary cost? I doubt it, and for what it’s worth, so do the three civic-minded, public-school-educated Princeton undergraduates to whom I posed this question last month. Yes, Wendy Kopp ’89’s brainchild Teach for America is open to “professionals” as well as to the recent college graduates who make up most of the corps, but the commitment is for two years. That’s a long time. With all the will in the world, not many professors could persuade their employers to give them such a leave of absence and convince their families that changing gears for two years is a good idea.

Among the many things the American educational system needs are stronger intellectual ties across the unnaturally large institutional divide between 12th grade (and what comes before) and freshman year in college (and what comes after). It should not be difficult for engaged professors to arrange, especially when on sabbatical, to spend a meaningful week or month at a school near or far that could benefit from their expertise, and I think a case can be made for inviting schoolteachers to do the same at colleges and universities. Does anyone — student, teacher, colleague, administrator, member of our Program in Teacher Preparation — want to think with me about what a facilitating program might look like?

As for me, I have chalk and will travel, at any rate when I’m on sabbatical. I’ll bet that I have colleagues in other departments who feel the same, for Princeton prides itself on hiring scholars who like to teach. So if anyone out there in a position of responsibility wishes to arrange a professorial visit to your school, let’s talk.

Joshua Katz is a professor in the Department of Classics. He can be reached at jtkatz@princeton.edu.