Untaught Lessons

"Untaught Lessons" aims to explore new ways of thinking about teaching, learning and the school experience. Philip W. Jackson investigates what students learn and what teachers teach - not in terms of explicit curriculum, but in terms of the implicit long-term influences teachers have on students. He then examines the effect teaching has on teachers: how the teaching experience influences the evolution of each teacher's sense of self. Jackson's focus on these "untaught lessons" became the focal point for his four Sachs Lectures, presented at Teachers College, Columbia University in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These four lectures, collected here, present Jackson's "reflections of a teacher remembered, a teacher captured in poetry, a teacher observed, and the teacher in him". As a philosopher in the field of education today, Jackson poses more questions than he answers. Any teacher who reads this book should be left with much to think about regarding the "untaught lessons" both students and teachers learn. The book aims to provide an important framework for thinking about teaching and learning for anyone involved in the teaching experience.