A Sixty-Year Ride through the World of Education

About the Book

A Sixty-Year Ride through the World of Education depicts the author's educational pursuits from elementary school to provost. Learning is followed by teaching and writing and, soon, academic administration. Interspersed among these thirty-three short autobiographical sections are fourteen others that deal directly and practically with educational topics. This short work is a rich introduction to the world of education in the last half-century.

Table of Contents:

Part 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Volksschule in Heidelberg
Chapter 3 Expulsion and Departure
Chapter 4 Two Schools in Manhattan
Part 5 I: Some Thoughts About Elementary School
Chapter 6 Brooklyn Tech
Chapter 7 The Mechanical Course
Part 8 II: Concerning High School Education
Chapter 9 Interlude in the Navy
Chapter 10 Freshman Year in Columbia
Part 11 III: On Required Courses for Undergraduates
Chapter 12 Mostly Humanities
Chapter 13 A Start in Philosophy
Part 14 IV: On Liberal Education
Chapter 15 Not Studying Abroad
Chapter 16 Graduate School Is Different
Chapter 17 Out of School Again
Chapter 18 All but Dissertation
Chapter 19 Writing a Dissertation
Part 20 V: On Graduate Education in the Humanities
Chapter 21 Launched as a Teacher
Chapter 22 On Learning How to Teach
Chapter 23 An Adult in San Francisco
Chapter 24 Teaching and Writing
Chapter 25 The Mission of Undergraduate Teaching
Chapter 26 Administration and Politics
Chapter 27 The Blowup at San Fransisco State
Chapter 28 Vassar is Different
Chapter 29 Chairing Philosophy at Vassar
Part 30 The Peculiar Task of Chairing a Department
Chapter 31 BMOC
Part 32 IX: What Liberal Arts Colleges Are Good For
Chapter 33 Fellowships
Chapter 34 Publish or Perish
Chapter 35 Northwestern: Making Changes
Chapter 36 Busy, Busy
Chapter 37 Out of the Office
Chapter 38 Institutional Coherence and Identity
Part 39 XI: The True Nature of Academic Administration
Chapter 40 Between School and School
Chapter 41 On Searching for Academic Administrators
Chapter 42 Provost at Pitt, Briefly
Chapter 43 Denouement
Part 44 XIII: On the Tendency to Transform Universities into Corporations
Chapter 45 My Last Philosophy Department
Chapter 46 Now with a Bang
Part 47 XIV: Retirement as Institutional Necessity
Chapter 48 Out of School for Good
Part 49 Endnotes
Part 50 Index

About the Author :
Rudolph H. Weingartner emigrated to New York from Nazi Germany in 1939. He earned his doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University. His career as a teacher and scholar has included chairing three philosophy departments, serving as dean at Northwestern, and as provost at the University of Pittsburgh. He has written books and articles on numerous topics and has variously pursued his strong interests in music and art.

Review :
Rudy Weingartner takes us on a gentle but invigorating ride through the groves of academe. It is a journey that will be of interest to anyone who has worked in a university, and I think it will fascinate many of those for whom a university education has been an important experience. The book also speaks to the centrality of the humanities in the construction of our higher education. Finally, it will fascinate anyone interested in the Americanization of a talented immigrant boy who makes the most of the remarkable educational opportunities available in this country. It is a wonderful read. Dr. Weingartner's book is fascinating on three levels: as an intellectual autobiography, an account of an academic career in institutions both public and private, and a reflection on the nature of education, the profession of teaching and scholarship, the value of the liberal arts, the nature of the institutions of the university and college, and the conditions and purposes of academic administration. By starting from his own experience, Dr. Weingartner gives concrete context for the general ideas through which he illuminates the state, and the challenges, of higher education today. Weingartner lived through decades of the publish-or-perish policy, both in its positive and negative forms, mandatory retirement ages for professors, and several of the very strange and arcane rites known as choosing a new college president. The result here is an accessible and readable account of what it is to live a life of the mind while surrounded with administrative responsibilities that sometimes are the least intellectual things one can do without buying specially-made shoes. New professors, new administrators and new university board members, read this. His insights are personal and abosrbing.... Frank and refreshing....The book's informal and engaging style makes it ideal as s supplementary reading in courses in higher education leadership or the history of higher education. Rudolph Weingartner has had experience in every aspect and at every level of education in America. He has readable, practical bits of advice to give about them all from which college a student should attend, to the strengths and limits of the publish-or-perish policy, to the need for mandatory retirement for professors, and on to the norms of choosing college presidents. All this information is empirically grounded in tales of how he acquired it.