Pushing The Pencil

About the Book

From the essays… “Teachers must learn how to push the pencil, effecting ease and simplicity out of hard learning that leaves a deep and permanent impression upon youthful thought.” “Having high expectations is laudable but woefully inadequate for overcoming the disparities that lurk in the deep recesses of our broad domain.” “More teaching, whether good or bad, is lost somewhere between class and lunch than could ever be recovered from one year to the next.” “The best lessons taught end up at the dinner table, not at the end of the period.” “That teaching is as much an addiction as it is a profession need not be elaborately urged.” “ Teachers though born must nevertheless be made and remade.” “Schools do not improve teaching; teaching improves schools.”

About the Author

A graduate of Princeton and Harvard, Dr. Thomas has taught in a variety of settings over the past forty-five years. His broad experience includes private schools and public schools, a prep school and charter school, schools in Africa and Eurasia, graduate schools in Bloomington and Boston. He lives with his wife in Bedford, Massachusetts and sails his boat on the ocean in summer.