How to Teach College

Secrets from a Master of the Craft
Edited by:

A posthumous book by the bestselling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, sharing the strategies and secrets of an award-winning, fifty-year career as a college professor

“Not a few professors teach solely because they have to, to hold a position that lets them do what they really want to do, which is ‘their work’—their research, their writing. . . . Those professors miss the joys of teaching.”
—from the introduction to How to Teach College

In addition to being a bestselling author, James W. Loewen was also a prizewinning educator, with a career spanning over half a century at institutions including Tougaloo College, Harvard University, and the University of Vermont. Beloved by his students and the recipient of many “best teacher” awards, Loewen’s last undertaking before his death in 2021 was this book, How to Teach College, a brilliant distillation of his wisdom on the subject.

Encompassing advice both epic (how to convey a love of one’s topic and motivate students to become lifelong learners) and technical (how to plan a syllabus, manage the classroom, handle grading, and more), the book draws on firsthand stories and anecdotes from Loewen’s own courses on sociology and race relations.

With a special emphasis on reaching students from diverse backgrounds and teaching potentially difficult subjects, How to Teach College comes to us in Loewen’s vibrant, original, and inimitable voice. The book is a gift to university professors and high school teachers—those new to the profession as well as experienced instructors—and will be of interest to the millions of fans of Loewen’s other books.

The manuscript was edited by Loewen’s son, Nicholas, a longtime high school English teacher, and sociology professor Michael Dawson, with whom Loewen shared an early draft.

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Praise

“How to Teach College is a 'cookbook' of over one hundred (I counted!) practical lessons, techniques, tricks, and gimmicks that Jim learned in his fifty-year career as a college teacher. It provides a clear road map that will make teaching easier, more effective, and more rewarding for students and professors alike. While it speaks directly to teachers, I hope that educational leaders at every level will read—and absorb—this brilliant, eminently sensible, and highly readable book.”
—John Merrow, former PBS Education correspondent
“While most of us know Jim Loewen for unearthing important yet hidden aspects of history and culture so that we can have more robust content, in this volume he unearths the real challenge of what happens in classrooms . . . ensuring good teaching. He reminds us that content cannot teach itself. Outstanding college teachers make the content come alive and ensure that students are engaged. This volume is a real treasure!”
—Gloria Ladson-Billings, professor emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“This insightful volume by one of this nation’s greatest teachers reminds us that ‘learning how to learn’ is the most important lesson. Never afraid to speak truth to power, Professor Loewen taught our history the way it really happened and inspired countless students to do the same. While answers are important, sometimes asking the right questions is even more important.”
—Donzell Lee, PhD, president, Tougaloo College
“James Loewen is a legend among educators because of his lifelong defense of the right to teach, the right to learn, and the right to think at all—which is often in doubt, and is now under serious and sustained assault. A model truth-teller in the classroom, Loewen’s How to Teach College offers a dazzling profusion of practical teaching ideas built upon rock-solid ethical principles. He shows teachers at every level how to create a culture of curiosity, creativity, and courage, how to reduce the distance between content and experience, and how to challenge and nourish learners in the same gesture. James Loewen left us several years ago, but in this posthumously published text Nicholas Loewen and Michael Dawson have brilliantly captured his voice and simultaneously reanimated his essential wisdom. This is an urgent and necessary book for these times. James Loewen presente!”
—William Ayers, retired Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago

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