Letters to a Young Academic (review)

This short book of personal reflections and advice includes edited versions of 20 letters originally written to the author's students or colleagues. It will likely strike resonant chords with faculty from many disciplines, many political persuasions, and many sets of personal/philosophical beliefs, but it is unlikely to please all of the readers all of the time. Some reasons for this ability to elicit both commendation and condemnation are the breadth of topics, the style of writing, and the lack of standard academic trappings such as citations, a reference list, and an index of topics. In addition, the book fluctuates in tone from insightful to petty to practical to harsh to funny to inspirational and from alignment with established research to direct contradictions of that same research.

For example, in the introduction, the author notes that the book represents an attempt to offer advice to young academics. McPherson writes, "The endeavor is simultaneously humble and arrogant: the former because I am not particularly qualified to provide the advice, the latter because nobody else is, either" (p. ix). This statement suggests a lack of knowledge of existing literature and/or a much-too-facile dismissal of that body of work (e.g., Robert Boice's book for new faculty in 1992 and studies of new faculty reported by Trower, Austin, and Sorcinelli in 2001). Likewise, in chapter 1, the author says that one should not be concerned with fears that students are being "brainwashed" because there are "six decades of research showing that the effects of college on attitudes, values, religiosity, and political views of students are almost nil" (p. 5). In fact, the most cited reviews (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, 2005) note that the net effects of college impact positively on psychosocial change, attitudes and values, and moral development more than can be accounted for by factors such as precollege attitudes or simple maturation. The juxtaposition of a strong term like "brainwashed" and a reference to nil findings creates an inaccurate picture, for college does have some effects, even though brainwashing is not one of them. Finally, in chapter 8, McPherson says that "study after study and book after book routinely report that enthusiasm is the single most important element of good teaching" (p. 75). This contradicts Feldman's (1989) extensive review and analysis showing that while faculty believe teacher enthusiasm to be the second-most important dimension of teaching after subject knowledge, organization and preparation is the dimension of teaching most strongly correlated to student achievement. In fact, of the 17 dimensions identified by Feldman, teacher enthusiasm ranks 11th with respect to its correlation with student achievement and 8th with respect to its correlation with student ratings of teaching.

It is difficult to react with cool objectivity and equanimity to all that lies within Letters to a Young Academic, especially if one knows the literature or is in the habit of looking for corroborating evidence in the usual form. What makes this even a bit more difficult to read is the contradiction of McPherson's frequent (and appropriate) statements about the need for students to build arguments based on "evidence" with the lack of such evidence in supporting certain of his statements. What's good for the goose should be . . . well, you know. Thus, as a reader-reviewer, sitting alone at my desk, I found myself carrying on a good deal of indirect and contradictory conversation with the author. In depth exclamations such as "Yes!" or "What the …?" or "Give me a break" or "Right on!" punctuated the morning quiet, and a range of concurrent and conflicting emotions battled for primacy. What to do?

First, from the outset, readers have to acknowledge that since the basis for the book is personal communication (letters to students and new faculty), we must give the author a lot of leeway in terms of following standard formats. Likewise, because the book makes no claims of including the benchmarks of standard scholarship, we cannot fault their absence. Also, as is soon apparent, the author...